Manipulation
by Iluvbeyblade
Summary: Only normals get promoted. So Kai's straight. But he wasn't always a liar. Then he meets Ray. The attraction is instant but the pressure of work is mounting, and soon Kai must decide between safety, sanity and something that might just be love.
1. Chapter 1

For anyone who's concerned, yes, I will update Stress. This week, hopefully. I just missed KaiRay more than _chocolate_, and so had to write some. It was going to be a oneshot, but then it grew a little. I'm pleased - it'll be my first KaiRay multi-chapter in years.

Enjoy!

* * *

"Mr Hiwatari?"

"Yeah." Kai got to his feet and winced. Those chairs hadn't been very comfortable The masseur smiled at him, and indicated that he should enter the room. He did so, eyeing the massage couch in the centre of the room with mistrust.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Ray Kon." They shook hands. He had a decent grip, and his smile, if it was possible, had broadened. "If you would just take a seat over there?" Kai looked past the dominating massage couch and saw a desk and two chairs, over to side of the room.

"Why?" he asked brusquely. As he observed the flash of surprise on the masseur's face, he also felt a familiar heat heighten his interest - the man was insanely handsome. Knee-length wavy black hir was scraped back from his forehead and held in a long, tight strip of white cloth that stretched to almost the end of the hair. The hair was pulled back so severely that on anyone else, it would probably have aged them by at least ten years. On this man, nothing of the sort. His skin was much darker than Kai's, bordering on the colour Kai considered "Asian", and his eyes were such a light shade of brown as to be called golden, livened by flecks of green. He was wearing smart black trousers and a loose top, but his arms and the sinews in his neck showed that he was physically fit.

"I'd like to discuss your medical history and current health, if that's all right, in order to decide what treatment is best for you."

So irritatingly polite.

"Huh. _Treatment_," Kai scoffed. "As if this is like medicine or something."

"Or something," the masseur replied amiably enough, pulling out Kai's chair for him.

Kai was reasonably impressed. It took self-control not to rise to his jibes - something that most of the people he worked with didn't have. Riling them had stopped being entertaining a long ago. Probably at the point where he had started doing it without meaning to.

He couldn't help but notice that (What had he said his name was? Oh yeah,) Ray crossed his legs when he sat down in the chair next to him.

He scolded himself mentally for being so cliché - what next, checking the ears?

Now that he'd thought it, he couldn't stop his gaze flicking over them quickly, right-left. None. Pity. Not that it meant anything. He subconsciously tugged at his right ear, where a decade ago there had been a hole. Healed over long since, of course. It didn't pay to 'flaunt' in business.

As they discussed his medical history (nothing to mention, really) and his current health (even less, unless a couple of ear infections counted), he continued to needle Ray, trying for some reaction outside of the plastic customer-services smile. Eventually, Ray put down his pen with a final-sounding _clunk_ and shifted slightly in his seat.

"What made you decide to come here, Mr Hiwatari?" The inference clear; _because you don't seem like you want to be here_.

Kai snorted and settled more comfortably in the chair.

"To be frank, someone else's money."

Ray raised his eyebrows curiously.

"Simple, really. Work colleague grabs my shoulder to congratulate me on a bonus, throws a hissy fit about how tight the muscles were, books me a session here. Wouldn't take the amount back from me either, so I figured I had to come to avoid waste."

"Work stressful?"

Kai shrugged.

"It's work."

Ray waited a few seconds, probably for a more informative reply. Kai just folded his arms and tried not to stare at Ray's biceps.

"Ok." Ray stood up and gestured towards a pile of neatly folded white towels. "You ok with undressing?"

Kai shrugged again, fighting a juvenile urge to joke "Only if you help". He wondered if it had somehow shown in his eyes, because Ray's face briefly creased with a grin.

"Right, strip off, towel round your waist and lie on your stomach on the table. Call me when you're done."

* * *

"So, what are you doing?" Kai asked in a muffled voice. He didn't like being unable to see what was going on, it made him feel uneasy.

"Such a businessman," Ray said with a laugh. Kai maintained a questioning silence, which shattered in an embarrassing noise of surprise as he felt Ray's hands rest slickly on his back. "At the moment, I'm just doing a quick massage, which will hopefully relax you and give me a better idea about what sort of treatment you need."

"Treatment," Kai muttered again, trying not to quiver as Ray's hands slid up and down his back.

"Yes. Treatment." There was an edge to Ray's voice now, and Kai grinned victoriously. The next few minutes passed in silence, until Kai asked again,

"What are you doing?"

He heard Ray sigh.

"I'll just talk you through it all, shall I?"

"Yeah." Kai bit his lip as the heat in his crotch increased. The voice and the hands both at once. Holy shit. And the odd swish from that mass of hair didn't help. Or did help, depending on your point of view.

Half an hour later, Ray stepped back. "You can sit up now."

Kai did so, trying to keep his back to Ray as much as possible to hide his continued arousal. He was certain he saw Ray's eyes dart downwards, but Ray made no reaction if he had, just walking to the small sink in the corner to wash his oily hands.

"Get dressed, and then we'll discuss future sessions," he said with his back to Kai, then left the room.

Kai got dressed, determinedly thinking about one of his more troublesome sales reps, Tyson - his eating habits and his disgusting, explosive farts that he was childishly proud of.

Dirty feet. Little children with snotty noses and shitty bums. Anything would do.

Shit, he needed to get laid. Chances of that happening had disappeared into minus numbers at about the third promotion. Shit.

He called Ray back in. Called him "Mr Kon," mind you. It had become his automatic mode of address a while ago. Much safer than navigating the minefield of given names and "mate" and all that. And it would be insane to reveal how he had instantly become "Ray" in his head. So Ray sat down again, with his legs crossed, and Kai stared at the desk. He was beginning to feel embarrassed. It was so unlike him to tumble head over heels into lust.

"Your friend was right, Mr Hiwatari. Your muscles are very, very tight."

Tala wasn't his_ friend_. They just understood each other far too well for people who had only met two years ago.

"If you'd like, I could book you in for a course of deep muscle massage therapy. It's a bit more forceful than the session you've just had, I mean, it can be relatively uncomfortable, but I think it's necessary to break down the adhesions in your muscles."

"Adhesions?"

"Band of painful muscle."

"Hm."

"This is, of course, dependent on whether or not you feel like returning."

Kai looked at Ray in surprise - there had been a mild bite to that remark. Fair enough. He had been rude. And horny. Not that Ray knew that, right?

"I might. It did relax me," he ventured. Ray's face split into the widest grin Kai had ever seen. It was beautiful.

"No, it didn't." He uncrossed and re-crossed his legs. Kai did _not_ watch.

There was a distinctly uncomfortable pause. "Look, Mr Hiwatari, it's not unusual for clients to experience arousal during a session."

"Not unusual doesn't really mean usual, does it?" Kai asked with a mixture of sarcasm and embarrassment. He could feel his face starting to go red.

"No, or this would be an entirely different type of service," Ray replied with a decidedly mischievous glint in his eyes.

Kai's face felt like it was on fire.

"So, you know. Here's the number," Ray passed him a green business card, "have a think and call if you want to. It would be six sessions, two a week."

Kai nodded and fingered the card uncertainly. "Right." He stood up. All lower misbehaviours aside, he did actually feel more relaxed. Maybe it was worth something. He'd be damned if Tala found out, though. He was insufferable when he was right. Insufferable most of the time, really.

But still. What must Ray _think _of him? Some sort of nympho?

Shaking Ray's hand, he turned to go.

"Just do me a favour," Ray called. Kai half-turned and raised his eyebrows. "Get out of that stupidly stressful job of yours early one day and go get some, ok? Shouldn't be too hard ..." He trailed of. The remainder of the sentence hung heavily in the air _"for someone like you_." The teasing tone, and definite, a hundred percent _definite_ spark of attraction in Ray's golden eyes made Kai's stomach do gymnastics.

He took a deep breath for serenity, then snorted and managed in an almost normal tone, "I wish."

The rest of the evening was spent doing as much work as he could find to distract himself from thinking about _anything_ else, though towards bedtime he did dig out his old purple stud earring and stare at it for a while.

* * *

Well, I have a vague idea of where this is going, so, yay! I'm thinking, maybe 3, 4 chapters?

What do you think? How steamy do you want it to get?

All opinions and criticisms welcome.

Thanks for reading,

xIlbx


	2. Chapter 2

A massive thank you to **Echo in the Dark**, **LovelySinner7**, **black-wolf-kot** and **Sa-kun** for your reviews! Another thanks to those of you whom had added this to your favs or alerts!

I'm very happy that people are enjoying this! :D

This is tentatively still a 'T' rating , though there's a bit of swearing and masturbation at the end. Important warning - does not contain Ray! :O

Enjoy!

* * *

Kai leant back in his chair and tried not to feel guilty. He had just sent Tyson Granger out of his office after a telling-off so accurate and cutting that the usually rebellious man had left in slump-shouldered silence. No doubt he had gone straight to Max Tate, the young man who Kai swore to Tala was his only reliable subordinate these days, to complain.

It had been _deserved_, for heaven's sake. Tyson was a sales representative. He was supposed to _sell_. He was not supposed to do nothing for most of the month, then, as the deadline approached, suddenly spring into action like a hurricane and make more sales in two days than most of the staff had managed in the month. It was just not _right _that he could do that. It was also frustrating - if those results were consistent, he would be in line for goodness only knew what in the way of bonuses and promotions. This would get him out of Kai's hair in a fashion more mutually beneficial than the sacking Kai regularly considered. He had _told _Tyson this, but the man had brushed it aside, politely enough for him. He liked it where he was, with his friends Max, Andrew and Alan. They went out for boozy 'lad's nights' together and swapped stories of their wives; no doubt Tyson regaled them with endless tales of his six-month old son, Makoto, as he told everyone within earshot _every single bloody day_.

He would bet money that they swapped tales about him, as well. Their sour, perfectionist, workaholic, unlikable boss. They all respected him, of course. He'd made sure of that by being strict and very, very observant (it spooked them brilliantly) and, above all, never letting his guard down for a second. Yes, they knew that he was pleased with Alan's work ethic and liked Max's careful politeness in the face of the most virulent sarcasm. He would just never reveal that sometimes their jokes were funny, especially the ones about Tala and even the ones about himself. And he would certainly never reveal that their relationships woes wound him up to such a state of despondent need that he felt like punching anything more solid than cloth.

He heard the homophobic jokes Andrew and Tyson made, the laughing references to "them and gingers being the only acceptable discrimination". These were the very_ not _funny jokes, the ones where he sat at his desk, with the door propped ajar as ever, hands scrunched into fists and every muscle trying to follow suit as he listened.

Of course, they had suspected him of homosexuality several times in hushed whispers behind his back, at the rare office parties he actually attended, when he turned up alone time after time and spurned every drooling, drunken woman employee who tried it on. Rumours were just rumours, though. He could cope with that.

_Ring, ring! Ring, ring! _

Snapped out of his thoughts just as they took on a familiarly melancholy colour, he picked the phone up.

"Mr Hiwatari speaking."

"You sound worse than I feel, Kai."

Kai groaned and gripped his tense neck very hard with one hand. He so did not need Tala right now.

"Anything useful to say, Ivanov?"

"Yes, have you been back to that massage place yet? You said you might be going back."

"I said nothing of the sort."

Tala snorted. "Technically no, but you emitted positive grunts."

"Hm."

Silence. Kai refused to give in. Tala might literally be his boss, but he was happy to let Kai do all bar the most bureaucratic jobs associated with the position. It made them awkward sort-of equals, and made conversations like these a bitch.

"Bet you can't even flex your hands without them hurting," Tala challenged. Kai sighed, refusing to test that bet. He changed the subject instead to someone he and Tala had spent much of the day before discussing.

"I pulled Granger up for his ... erratic workload."

"His name is Tyson."

"His surname is Granger," Kai countered, maybe a bit childishly, but fuck it. Tala conceded the point.

"I hope you didn't scare him into quitting."

Kai laughed sourly. "Nothing could do that."

"Wish he'd give us results like that more often."

"Yeah, you're telling me."

"Yes."

Kai pulled a face and readjusted the phone next to his ear.

"You say that like I'm supposed to do something about it," he said with a touch more affront in his voice than was perhaps wise.

"Well, _someone's_ got to," Tala replied sharply.

A thousand retorts crowded into Kai's head and started it pounding. They ranged from swallowing his pride and going along with Tala for now, to telling him to sort Granger himself, to just snarling "Fuck off" and slamming down the phone like some sort of moody teenager. He bit down on his finger hard enough to draw tears to his eyes.

"I'll see how he is next month," he said eventually.

"See that you do. Andrew, too. He's been zig-zagging above and below quota for a while."

"Yes. Right."

When he eventually put the phone down, his teeth were clenched so tightly that pain was stabbing from his jaw upwards, his head was throbbing, and he just generally felt like a spring wound to breaking point. So he snapped at everyone even more than before, delighting when Tyson lost his temper and answered back because it meant that he could tear into him with full verbal dexterity. He only stopped because the others had started to look away in embarrassment. And then he too was embarrassed at his behaviour, so he spent the remainder of the day in his office with the door shut, pounding away at the computer keyboard with hands that, indeed, hurt to flex.

When he got home that evening, he tumbled onto his bed and lay there face down, aware and irritated that every muscle in his body was quivering.

_Mrow_.

There was a thump as his cat jumped up onto the bed. It miaowed again, loudly. Kai grunted tiredly into the mattress in vague acknowledgement. A soft paw, claws sheathed, batted his cheek. It made him jump. He didn't bother to move, mumbling into the mattress, "Go catch a mouse or something."

_Mrowlss!_

This time, the poking paw had claws.

"Fu-uck," Kai complained, shoving himself upright. He put one hand gingerly to his cheek. It came away red and wet. He looked in aggravated disbelief at the grey cat, which miaowed and waggled the base of its tail happily. "Schizo cat." He got to his feet - his head throbbed and sent his vision momentarily haywire - and went into the kitchen. The cat's noises redoubled and it twined between his feet enthusiastically. "Stupid cat. Idiot cat," he mumbled as he shook dry cat food into one bowl and salty tuna into the smaller bowl.

He wasn't even supposed to _have_ a cat, it was one of the conditions of his rent. But he'd bought and done a pretty good job of concealing a cat flap for the door leading out to the fire escape, and cats were fastidious creatures so the place never smelt. A quick vacuum got rid of any hair, or feathers if the animal had decided to actually behave like a cat for once.

"Owners are not for eating," he scolded as he bent down (several joints cracked) and put the bowls on the floor. The cat ignored him and buried its face in the food without further ado. Shaking his head fondly, Kai popped quickly into the bathroom and eyed his face in the mirror above the toilet. (Yes, most people had a mirror above the sink. So what? If for some insane reason he wanted to look at himself while he was doing his teeth ... well, he usually brushed them at the same time as going to the toilet anyway.) The blood was already clotting. He spat on his fingers and dabbed at the sticky trails half-heartedly.

He wasn't hungry, but he fixed himself something anyway. He knew from experience that if he didn't, his stomach would feel nothing short of chewed on by tomorrow morning. Halfway through the microwaved _stuff _(it might have been macaroni cheese at some point in its previous life), the cat jumped up onto his lap and sniffed at his plate curiously.

"Mine," Kai said with a hint of sulkiness, nudging the cat's head away. It let out a affronted miaow, but then curled up on his lap with an adoring look upwards. It headbutted Kai's arms as they moved to and forth above its grey head. "Stupid cat," Kai said again, relinquishing his knife in order to give it the fuss it was demanding.

Soon, it began to purr. Kai smiled.

Once the cat had allowed him to move again and he had run out of mind-numbing television on obscure satellite channels, he decided that bed was quite probably in order.

On his bedside table, propped up against the alarm clock, was the green business card Ray had given him. Because despite what Tala thought, he hadn't forgotten. Oh no, he hadn't forgotten a single thing about that experience. There was so much not to forget about Ray; his muscular arms, his pleasant, confident voice, his _hands_.

Kai sat there and looked at that card, and he thought about how it would feel to lie on that massage table and feel Ray's hands roaming over his back, teasing lower and lower, while that gorgeous voice whispered filthy things into his ear - and then he came all over the bed.

That, Tala, he thought heavily, is why there was no way in hell he was going back for another session.

* * *

Anyone got any complaints about the future sex scenes I intend to include? Let me know. :)

Don't worry, next chapter will have Ray! And I'll try to restrain myself from writing lots about the cat! XD Isso CUTE.

All opinions, comments and criticism welcome!

xIlbx


	3. Chapter 3

A massive thank you to Ming-sama, black wolf-kot, Lirin Sama, , Tootchy, Echo in the dark and Kinomyia for your reviews!

Wow, it's an update! (dies) What can I say, it accidentally grew a plot.

Warning, this chapter contains quite a bit of swearing, including the f and c words. Blame Kai.

Enjoy!

* * *

If he overheard one more stupid joke about how he had ended up with scratches on his face, Kai was going to lose his temper. Thank God they had had the weekend to heal to a point of only slight scabbiness, or he really would be going insane. He couldn't even explain it truthfully, as he assumed that the identical surname mean that some relative of Tyson's was his landlord. The _luck_.

Despite the fact that the cat had wounded him, irritated him at least once a day, and brought him a live mouse this morning that he had been forced to chase around the kitchen for half an hour, he couldn't bring himself to even pretend that he wanted it gone.

He needed to buy a house. How long had he been saying that now? Years? Rent was a pain, but more convenient than all the shit about getting on the property ladder and deposits and mortgages (like he needed _more_ massive debt after the thousands he racked up at uni).

That and, well, he'd always sort of thought that houses were for couples.

There was a knock on his office door, accidentally pushing it half-open. He called for whoever it was to come in, and breathed a sigh of relief when it was Max. On his own, Max was a decent enough man. Alan, too. It was just when they were around the childish duo of Tyson and Andrew that they got on his nerves.

"Yeah?"

Max shuffled nervously, holding Kai's gaze by determination alone. "Tala says Kevin's waiting to see you, Kai." He even dropped the accepted 'Mr Hiwatari' in his anxiety.

Kai winced. Then he remembered the scratches on his cheek and swore a blue streak inside his head.

"Why are _you _telling me this, and not my receptionist? Didn't know I'd demoted you," he pointed out, shoving his anger briefly at Max. Max chuckled awkwardly.

"He came straight into the communal office. Something about finally getting your attention." The sharpness in Max's eyes as he said the last few words didn't pass Kai by, and he remembered with a lot of pride and a little guilt that he had told the receptionist and Max and the others to make excuses for him. They had held the persistent little shit off for a week. A _week_. It was an impressive feat.

"So when you say he's waiting for me ..." He bypassed the acknowledgement that Max had clearly been expecting. Max clenched his teeth together before admitting,

"He's just outside."

"And Tala?"

Max tipped his head back briefly and with the screwed-up expression of someone expecting impending death, recited,

"Tala says that _Kenny_ says that Kevin has started trying to hack into our systems. So Tala says get rid of him or else."

Kai fought the urge to punch something. "If he's hacked us, call the police or something!"

"Should do." It was a flat, bland reply. Max was suddenly staring at his ear rather than look him in the eye. Kai _did_ punch the desk then; he knew that look. It said "No matter how much I agree with you and know that you're my boss,_ your _boss ordered me to do this."

"Fine," he said through gritted teeth. "Send him in." Without another word, his cheeks red, Max turned and left. Kai debated what punishment he was going to dole out for that ... that going behind his back-ness. It felt rather like he'd just lost his only remaining ally. He immediately loathed himself for such wet thinking, and tried to forget that he had once called Max his "only reliable subordinate."

"So, the great manager will see me now!" Kevin sauntered into the room. His grin looked confident, but it was belied by his continual fiddling with his thick green hair.

Tala wanted him sorted? Happily.

"Sit the_ fuck _down," he snarled. Taken aback, Kevin hovered uncertainly between the comfy chair in the corner and the wicker chair pulled up to the desk. "Any seat, you worthless little hacker."

Understanding gleamed in Kevin's golden eyes and he opened his mouth to protest even as he sank without protest into the little wicker chair. Kai was going to cut him off brutally, but something had just hit him like a brick to the face.

Kevin looked like Ray. Not much; he was short and skinny where Ray was Kai's height and muscular, and the hair colour was very different, but it was the shape and skin colour of the face, and most of all those _eyes_.

Glacial calm descended.

"Now, here's your problem," he said, his voice like the slide of silk on ice. "You're trying to access confidential information illegally. You're not having any success, because our IT security is run by someone much cleverer than you. Well done anyway, it's a step up from abusive emails."

Kevin scowled. Kai narrowed his eyes. "Why shouldn't I ring the police right now?"

Kevin laughed. "You wouldn't dare."

Kai raised his eyebrows, honestly confused. Exactly what was stopping him? However, his bluff had been called and he wasn't about to back down now. He picked up his phone and began to dial the number of the police station. Tala could say what he wanted, he didn't care. Kevin went white.

"Don't!" he gasped. Kai replaced the phone, satisfied.

"Look," he said in an attempt at pretending to be reasonable, even as anger ran boiling and freezing through his veins, "this is easily sorted. I'm getting really, really pissed off at how often I'm hearing about you." The threat of the police appeared to have struck Kevin dumb, so Kai continued. "Yes, we sacked you. You deserved it. Yes, we drove you and your friend's business to bankruptcy." He smiled. "That's just business. You should have been better."

"But-"

"So, yes, if you make any sort of contact here with anyone from the director to the cleaners, then I'll ring the police. And at _least_, I'll tell them the truth."

"Y-you wouldn't _lie_!" Kevin stuttered. Kai shrugged.

"It's not lying if you can prove it.

Kevin left the room a pale, quivering mess. Kai was pleased. Job well done.

Now, who to handle first? Max or Tala?

Tala, while he was still running on mind-clearing anger. Face-to-face would be best, but then he'd have to find where he was and send a messenger to organise a meeting. Fuck that. He picked up the phone again and dialled Tala's private mobile phone number.

"Kevin sorted?" Tala answered by way of greeting. Oh, the joys of Caller ID, Kai thought bitterly.

"Yes."

"Completely."

"Don't question my competence. Why hasn't he been arrested yet, Ivanov?"

"Because that's not how I wanted it handled."

"Why not?"

"Enough questions, Kai."

"Fuck you!" Oops, he hadn't intended to say that out loud. Go with it. "Whatever you're hiding, bastard, you'd better fucking well tell me or I'll just go straight to the police next time he turns up - and I'll mention your reluctance to involve them before, see what they make of that!"

"He shouldn't turn up if you've done it right." Kai was momentarily too furious to speak. Only momentarily.

"You are _such _a cunt."

Tala sighed. "You're angry, Kai. I know you like how you are when you're like this and there are times when a bit of ruthlessness comes in handy, but this is _not_ one of them. It makes you a shit businessman. Either calm down or go home. Actually, just go home."

"What the _fuck_?"

"Seriously. Have the rest of the day off. Just don't kill anyone and get caught."

After ascertaining that Tala was indeed serious and not going insane, Kai imagining throwing the phone against the wall so hard that it disintegrated. Since that would have cost him money, he managed to restrain himself.

He felt like he was watching himself from outside his body, as he gently put the phone back down and gathered together what he would take home with him. That done, he saw himself pick up the stuff and leave the office. He came briefly back to himself in order to find Max, but popped straight back out to observe with utter detachment as the glare directed at Max made the blond turn dead white and everyone else uncomfortable. At a push, he remembered getting into and out of the car. Not the journey, but he must have driven because he was home. And then he was inside. He felt that he should care about the memory gaps, but didn't. The cat rubbed up against his leg. He ignored it and headed for the toilet.

Blackness.

* * *

Kai woke up because the cat was licking his face. Or, to be precise, because his semi-conscious mind had thrown up an old saying of his cat-hating grandfather's, "If you die alone, a dog will guard you and mourn. A cat, if you die alone, will eat your eyeballs."

_That_ woke him up quickly.

"'M not dead, you psycho," he mumbled, creaking open one eye enough to see the cat stare at him curiously. His cheek felt raw. Great. Now he'd have marks on both cheeks. The world was clearly telling him something.

He felt sick. Headache, too, and as tired as hell. He would love to be able to tell himself that he didn't know what had just happened. Unfortunately, he knew only too well. So all-consuming did his anger become when he really got in a rage that any attempt at controlling it simply overloaded his psyche, causing first dissociation, then blackouts. Lovely.

A quick look at his watch confirmed that he had been unconscious for nearly an hour; it was nearly six o'clock. Oh, this just got better.

The evening passed in a fog. Crappy TV, crappy food, mechanically following whatever orders the cat yowled at him; waiting for his brain to click back into gear again. Not bothering to think about the possible ramifications of the first blackout he'd had in three years, what it meant, what it implied in the way of necessary future action. None of that, just stroke the cat, let the cat eat most of his meal, stroke the cat, get drooled on by the cat. Think about shower. Nah. Stumble into bed.

So tired was he that for the first night since meeting him, he didn't think even fleetingly of Ray before sleep pulled him under.

* * *

The day afterwards, he turned up for work at normal time. His head still felt like someone had put it through a mangle, but still. He would be _damned_ if he'd take a day off work just for ... for his anger _thing_.

As soon as he was settled back in his office, he called Max in. Expecting to see hunched shoulders and a bowed head, it came as a surprise when Max came in all blue-eyed concern and asked before he could even say anything,

"Are you ok?"

He must look stupid, staring dumbly at Max like he was, but he didn't think he'd ever been more wrong-footed in his life. He could hardly have been more surprised if Max had come in and stripped naked while singing football chants. Didn't he _know_ he'd been pulled in for a bollocking?

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied at last. Then, irresistibly; "Why?"

Max shifted his weight from one leg to the other uncomfortably and began a first class babble. "Only, that you looked, yesterday, I mean, you looked really, really angry and you know, that's maybe understandable given Kevin, but, it's just that you looked _ill_, too. Tyson agreed." His swallowing was both visible and audible. "We thought you might be having a migraine or something."

A very, very big part of Kai wanted to just plough on with what he had planned and completely ignore what had just been said, but some tiny traitorous brain cell was weirdly comforted, and kicked him into answering,

"Something like that."

Max looked massively relieved that he hadn't been snapped at. "So, are you ok now?"

"Yeah." He thought that might be a lie, but what the hell, if he lied enough he might convince himself. Impetus completely gone, he somehow ended up making his lecture sound teasing, rather than stern and bastardly. Max went red and beamed at the unexpected friendliness.

He'd forgotten how attractive he found Max. The realisation that his gaze was lingering on his smiling lips and big, sparkling blue eyes longer than was appropriate shocked him back into gruffness, so he was able to tell Max to "Get out, Tate," with an entirely straight face. Laughing uncertainly, Max did so.

Then when Tala stormed in an hour later, Kai found himself foregoing paying attention to what he was saying, instead admiring his boss' tall, slim physique and the stunning contrast between his ghostly skin and tomato ketchup hair. Swearing at himself, he made a mental note to Google some pornography that evening and get this out of his system. A lot of pornography.

It was all _Ray's_ fault.

That didn't help his concentration either.

Eventually he focused enough to hear the tail-end of a textbook "disappointed in you" speech.

"Won't happen again," he muttered, twirling a pen between his index and middle fingers.

"That's just the problem, Kai, it_ will!_" Tala's voice had lost its chilly, hectoring tone and now sounded disturbingly earnest. "Admittedly I've never seen you as bad as you were yesterday - I presume that's why you look like shit today, by the way - but you still go off your head with anger on a fairly regular basis. It's all the more noticeable for how self-controlled and taciturn you are on an everyday basis."

Kai stayed sullenly silent. Tala sighed heavily and sat down on the comfortable chair in the corner of the room. "Look, Kai. I knew you had this personality disorder when I had you promo-"

"It's not a _personality disorder_!" He didn't even care that his voice had squeaked, so intense was his disbelieving embarrassment. Tala crossed his legs and wiggled one foot in a complete circle before speaking again.

"It's not a recognised personality disorder, no, but personally I think it should qualify. It's maladaptive for you and unpleasant for everyone around you."

"So you don't use it for your own ends or anything like that?" Kai slammed his chair back into the wall behind him and stood. Blood thundered in his ears, so he shouted over it. "You didn't make _quite _sure that I was wound up enough to scare Kevin shitless, at Max's expense?" Tala looked at him with a completely expressionless face. "You're nothing but a manipulative, exploitative cunt, Ivanov!"

Tala closed his eyes as if he couldn't look at Kai. "I'm getting _de ja vu_. I hoped you would see it differently."

Kai knew he was losing it again but really didn't care. If there was ever justification, this was it.

"_See what differently_? You come in here and call me mentally unstable when you know I'm nothing of the fucking sort, you know exactly how good I am - what you fucking doing, angling for a new tick on the positive discrimination box? Open your eyes and look at me when I'm speaking, you - _ah_."

He couldn't hear anything over the sound of blood crashing in his veins. The world went grey and soft before his eyes, and he felt himself crumple to the floor behind his desk. Shit, not again, he thought dizzily. He clung to consciousness with every fibre of his being.

"Kai!" The brief sound of running footsteps and suddenly Tala was crouched down beside him, his face just a white blob. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," he tried to reply, but it came out as a low grunt.

"Ok, just stay calm." Normally, in Kai's experience, when people said that, they really were saying it to themselves, but Tala did look almost entirely composed. He disappeared from Kai's line of vision, and next thing he knew his legs were being propped onto his chair. "See what that does."

Gradually, his senses came back to him. He moved his legs off the chair and started to sit up. Tala took hold of his shoulders and told him "Easy, now," in a low voice. Burning with humiliation, he shrugged away those hot, bony hands and wedged his shoulders against the desk until the dizziness had receded enough to let him support himself.

Fucking shitting Christ. This felt like being eleven again, when a string of slurs against his mother and father had led to the antagonist bleeding from the nose and mouth, and eventually resulted in just this situation, with one of the older boys, someone who Kai particularly admired to make it even worse, playing Tala's part.

Sweat was drying cold and sticky on his face and he was shivering. Weirdly, he felt worse than he had upon coming round yesterday. Maybe it was a cumulative thing. Maybe he shouldn't have come into work today.

"You shouldn't have come into work today," Tala lectured, putting one hand briefly on his forehead then surreptitiously wiping it on his jeans. Kai smirked. "It's not funny, Kai!"

There was a knock on the door. Tala had closed it when he came in - just as well - but now it opened. "Kai? I've got those reports you wanted Andrew to fax through - Kai?" It was Max. Kai felt his self-control slide again at the sheer horror of it all. Why Max?

"Go away, Tate," he called, battling to keep his voice wobble-free. Max had clearly completely ignored him, because his voice sounded closer when he asked,

"Kai, what's wrong? Do you need -"

In one sinuous movement, Tala sprang to his feet. His sudden appearance from behind the desk shocked Max into silence. In a voice that grew steadily more arctic, Tala said,

"I'm dealing with Kai. He'll be fine. Put the faxes by the door and get out or I'll sack you."

"But-"

"Now."

The door closed. Kai heaved a sigh of relief and used the desk to pull himself up so that he could slump down into his chair. Tala perched on the desk and stared at him from far too close. Their knees were almost touching.

"Does this happen a lot, Kai?" His voice suggested very strongly that he wasn't to be trifled with anymore. Kai shrugged.

"No. Not often. Something similar happened yesterday, when I got home." He met Tala's eyes with difficulty as he ventured, "I probably shouldn't have come into work today, no." Tala barked a disbelieving laugh.

"So finally we agree." He tapped his knee thoughtfully. "Right then. Got no choice, now. Neither do you."

"What?"

"Take a week's sick leave - at _least_ - or I really will sack you."

All Kai could do was stare at Tala's serious face and wonder how he had suddenly sunk into so much shit.

* * *

Ok.

Um.

Yes.

No Ray.

You can lynch me now.

But hey, now Kai's set up to spend lots of time with Ray. xD I was a little annoyed that Kai insisted on diving back into my normal territory of drama and angst, so sorry about that. I'll dig myself out, promise.

Ray will be in the next chapter. I super-promise. With flirtation and everything, and a date. I have it all planned in my head. It just that like I said, this went and grew a teeny tiny plot, so it needed a bit of foundation laid down. I think you'll get your hawt!boy-sex in about two chapters' time. I could be wrong. I ususally am.

From worship to flames, all opinions welcome. Thank you for reading!

xIlbx


	4. Chapter 4

Yes, I have already posted this, but I posted it too quickly and when I was tired, and so have added a few bits and pieces, especially after a couple of reviews showed people were confused. Again, a big thank you to **Ming-sama**, **Pixxy Dust**, **Chaseha-Wing**, **Lirin Sama****, ****Kinomyia**, **LovelySinner7** and **Sugar-Hype-Queen** for your reviews of Chapter 3, and thank you to those of you who have reviewed Chapter 4 so far!

I hope Version 2 is better! Enjoy!

* * *

Tala did _not_ know what he was talking about, Kai thought for the fiftieth time. How the hell was being stuck at home while his laissez-faire sort-of boss let the imbeciles make their own decisions going to help him become _less _stressed?

The only reason that he wasn't pacing around the room was that it was too much bother. Instead, he was slumped on the sofa, still in his night-time T-shirt and boxers, watching ... something.

He had only got up an hour ago, after being deliberately stupid in drinking himself into unconsciousness with cheap wine he'd bought at the supermarket on the way home. The state he'd been in, it hadn't taken long. As a result, that morning he had a clear head but a roiling stomach and a fuzzy sock masquerading as a tongue.

It had only taken him half an hour to do pretty much everything there was to be done in the flat. He'd even washed out the wine bottles and stacked them outside for recycling! By colour! So, well done, Ivanov; boredom, irritation and the niggling belief that work was already going to hell without him did not a relaxed Kai make.

It took three inane advertisements passing unseen in front of his eyes before he confronted the awkward question "What _did_ make him relaxed?"

Surely it shouldn't be that difficult to answer?

"_Mrow_!"

A smile twitched his lips, and he stretched a hand down from the sofa to ruffle the cat's grey fur. Staring at the approaching hand with a look of alarmed disdain, the cat leapt straight onto his chest and started to knead it with an expression of feline delight. Normally, the needling pain of ten sharp claws contracting and relaxing in his barely shielded skin would have caused Kai to say several rude things and send the cat flying, but this time he gritted his teeth and waited until the cat had softened him enough to curl up and settle down.

"_Purrrrr_."

"Well, there's you," he muttered thoughtfully. Unusually, the cat allowed him to stroke its fur without so much as a tail flick of protest. "You relax me, don't you, furball?"

"_Mreah_?" the cat mewed, moving its head an inch to regard Kai with its half-shut eyes. It sounded disbelieving.

"S'pose you're right," Kai sighed. The cat displayed its displeasure at the way this made his chest move by violently flicking its tail. It hit him in the eye and he sighed again. "You spend more time being annoying than you do relaxing me," he grumbled. The cat yawned and settled down again.

Great.

Like metal to a magnet, his gaze was dragged over to that little green card on the bedside table just visible through his open bedroom door.

Ray.

Sexual frustration wasn't relaxing either. It wasn't difficult to alleviate, for heaven's sake, he just needed a spot of privacy, a free hand and the images that his brain provided so regularly. It was just ... irritating, that was the word.

Handshakes aside, he hadn't touched another man in five years. That did weird things to your head, he was beginning to surmise. But still.

It wasn't like he thought he would end up _sacked_, not anymore. Tala didn't seem the type to do something as counter-productive to the company as that. All the same.

Straight out of university. Well, 'bent' out of university, to be quite truthful. And then he'd gone for a job and he'd got it straight away, of course, but then promotion time came around again and again and nothing happened. And people talked. It hadn't taken him long to put two and two together. It equalled Never Again. Literally. He had kissed his boyfriend goodbye one night and just never come back. Cue his celibate lifestyle – did phone and cyber- sex count, though? He'd always wondered.

Few months later, he found out his ex had committed suicide. But that was all right in the end too, when he was finally promoted.

He just didn't see how it could work anymore. The thought of going to office parties was usually bad enough, but the idea of bringing a _man_ (Ray, dressed smartly, shirt sleeves to show off his arms, a green tie – oh shut _up_) made him feel vaguely dizzy with scrunched up emotions.

Seized by a sudden impulse, he got up from the sofa (the cat yowled its displeasure and his head whirled almost badly enough to cloud his vision) and went into the bedroom. Swearing as he tripped over the shoes he had kicked carelessly off last night, he picked up the card and stared at it, brow furrowed.

Before he quite he knew what was happening, his mobile phone was turning on with a beep in his hand, and his treacherous fingers were tapping the touchpad, entering the numbers swimming in front of his eyes. With quivering fingers, he raised the phone to his ear.

'_Ring ring, ring ring _...' The dialling tone went on for almost a minute. Instead of hanging up, Kai just pressed the phone closer to his ear. With every passing second when no one picked up, the anticipatory knot is his stomach loosened, until suddenly;

"Hello, Leazes Massage Therapy, how can I help?" The woman sounded out of breath.

His head whirled with panicked obscenities. He didn't know what to say. He didn't even know why he'd rung. "Hello?" the receptionist repeated.

The red button on his phone briefly lit up. _There_. He threw it on the bed and stared at it, then turned on his heels and went into the ensuite bathroom, where he splashed cold water on his face and didn't look at himself in the mirror.

There was no doubt about it, he didn't feel himself. Even taking the ill-advised binge last night, he felt tired and disconnected from the world. No prizes for guessing what had caused that; now he was glad he'd never had two consecutive blackouts during his school years. Obviously, he _did_ need to – what was that word Andrew used? – _chill_. To relax. He could sort of identify that. Get less angry, at least. And massages were supposed to be relaxing, definitely. That was the point. So ...

Ten minutes later, he picked up the phone again.

* * *

Feeling a little bit achy, but apparently that was a side-effect of deep-muscle massage, Kai sat up from the massage table. The towel hat had been covering him fell to the floor, and only now, after the entire session, did he think he look down and realise that the boxers he was wearing had a hole in them.

"Fuck's sake," he whispered to himself. His voice lacked the chastisement that would usually be inherent in such a self-directed reprimand. Achiness aside, his body felt weirdly wobbly and he was that peaceful sort of relaxed where he wasn't sleepy at all, he just didn't want to move.

However, he _had_ to move. The masseur might come to see what the delay was, and while he was usually pretty immodest, boxers with a hole in appalled even his rusty social-interactions-meter

So, he thought to himself as he tried to shove his foot into the laced shoe by sheer force, this does actually work. Good.

"Can I come in?" asked the man's voice from the other side of the door. Kai replied in the affirmative, and a tall blue-eyed blond entered the room, brushing his hands against his jeans. "Well, you look better than you did when you came in," he said with a grin. Kai smirked, and stood up. He was half a head shorter than the masseur ... what was his name? Started with an 'M', maybe? "Will you be booking another appointment?" the man asked. Kai shrugged. A slight pause followed. "Well, if you would like to, the number's – "

"I know what the number is," Kai interrupted. Shifting his weight, he drew the green card slightly out of his trouser pocket, carefully showing the least crumpled corner.

"Oh, oh, well, all right then." Though looking a little taken aback, the masseur (Miguel! That was it!) smiled at him politely.

Despite that fact that Miguel was undeniably good-looking (he looked a bit like Max, if Max went on serious growth steroids and developed a deep tan), there had been no erection this time around. This, to be honest, was disconcerting Kai. It suggested that it wasn't just simply a misbehaving libido behind his reaction to Ray.

As though summoned by Kai's thoughts, when he opened the door to leave, Ray was waiting outside.

Their eyes met and Kai realised with a shiver that he had been kidding himself in truly spectacular fashion. He had thought that he had been so clever, booking a session with a different person. He was_ relaxing_. He was putting his continued productivity at work first._ What_ a good boy.

Except he knew now that he had done it purely and simply so that he might catch even a glimpse of Ray again.

A complicated stew of emotions travelled across Ray's face. There was hurt there, Kai realised with a jolt. Hurt and confusion and most of all, surprise, and still that little bit of attraction.

Kai was a very, very good 'people-reader'. He just rarely bothered to do it. Attraction was something he'd always found easy to spot; in his teenage years he could spot someone whose attention he'd caught from one look across a dark club floor. Everyone thought they could do this, especially with alcohol-inspired confidence, but really they couldn't. There was an innate knack to it.

So he read every emotion in the few centiseconds it took for them to cross Ray's face, but then found that his body wasn't letting him step away (run for it) like his brain was ordering him to. It took all his self-control not to reach out to try in some way to wipe that look from Ray's face.

Ray recovered his composure first. Unconsciously reaching up to tuck some hair behind his ear (it didn't need it; nervous tick, the functioning part of Kai's brain informed him helpfully), he smiled briefly and said,

"Hi, Kai."

_Fuck, he remembered my name_.

"Hey, Ray," he replied just as Ray started to walk past him. Ray did a visible double-take, and Kai grinned inwardly. _Yeah, I remembered yours, too_.

Ray hesitated and opened his mouth as if to speak, but then five years of business reminded Kai's dick what he was doing, and he hurried off, going into the toilets so that he looked less like he was running away.

Again, he splashed water on his face and didn't quite meet his own eyes in the mirror. His previous lazy relaxation was almost completely obliterated.

When he eventually emerged after five minutes of chasing the same thoughts round and round his head, he found Ray waiting for him. Oddly enough, this time his head stayed in one cool piece. He nodded to Ray with a small smile and made as if to walk past.

"Here."

He turned and looked. Ray was holding out a neat square of white paper. And just like that, his composure disappeared again. He could suddenly hear his pulse in his ears.

"I've already got it," he said quickly, and got three steps before Ray made an amused noise and said,

"Don't be stupid, Kai."

Schooling his face into something that didn't reflect his sudden inner sheepishness, he turned around again. "I'm not being stupid," he muttered feebly. If his feet shuffled right now, he would cut the fuckers _off_. Ray took a step closer. He smelt like that oil they all used, and Kai could see where he had missed a patch shaving that morning. Just under the point of his jawbone. All the more visible for the way that he had stretched his hair back again.

"Yes, you are," Ray said firmly, though softening it with a smile. "Discretion's not a problem, you know."

Kai would have loved to not have understood that statement perfectly. Heat spread from his ears in embarrassment, so instinctively he took refuge in jibes.

"What, you prefer married men?"

Ray's face was a picture. His eyes flicked down to Kai's left hand. Smirking, Kai lifted his hand and waved it helpfully. Ray scowled.

"Cock," he muttered with an irrepressible smile. Kai shrugged. Ray seemed to regain his equanimity. "Seriously, though. You're not out, are you?"

An automatic icy flash of panic at the dangerous words made Kai look right and left. No-one there.

"That'd be yes, then?" Ray laughed outright this time. Kai glowered. "Ok, ok." He stepped backwards. Kai forbade himself to move so much as a millimetre forwards. "Just saying," Ray said airily, then before Kai could react in any way at all, Ray had grabbed his hand and put the piece of paper in it, then let go again. His hands were warm and soft.

That did it. The part of Kai's brain that was still twenty-four and viciously ambitious tore him away, and without another word he walked off.

Didn't look back.

Didn't drop the paper, though.

* * *

The first thing that he did when he returned to his flat was telephone work. Well, actually, that was a lie. The first thing he did was chuck a bird with a broken neck out of the window after saying thank you to his cat for being a humane killer for once. There weren't even any feathers, which was great because his bastard landlord, Hiro Granger was coming round for a routine 'visit' tomorrow, and he couldn't be fucked to vacuum the place. Butafter_ that__,_ he phoned the communal office.

Brrrr, brrrrr ... "Hello, Tyson Granger?"

"Granger, dare I ask what you've done today?"

"Oh, Mr Hiwatari!" Tyson said, in his particular gleeful way that somehow made it sound far less respectful than just calling him 'Kai'. However, he sounded excessively happy this time. Kai's stomach winched itself downwards in anticipatory dread. "Sorry, but Tala's forbidden us to speak to you for at least three days."

Kai didn't swear. Not out loud. Anger ripped a familiar path through his grey matter.

"Get Tate."

"Nope, no can do." Tyson had never sounded so smug. Suddenly his tone changed to one of solicitude. "You're ok today, though?"

Kai ground his teeth together. The frustrating thing was that he could tell Tyson was entirely sincere. He was somehow simultaneously delighted to have Kai out of the office and worried about his health. It had to be very complicated to be as simple as Tyson.

"None of your business," he snapped.

"Ok, ok, I can take a hint!"

"No, you can't," Kai stated baldly. A hurt silence followed. Kai took advantage of it. "Tell Ivanov he'll regret this. So will you." He hung up and just stood there for a while, throwing the phone up and down one-handed, feeling anger gather hot momentum in his head. "No," he said quietly, as the phone nearly fell from his fingers. They were shaking. Again. "Not three days running." That would screw him up so much that he would feel almost justified in taking this imposed sick leave. He fingered the piece of white paper jammed in his other trouser pocket. Slowly, he keyed the scribbled number into the phone.

This was a really stupid idea. He pressed dial.

A really, really stupid idea. He lifted the phone to his ear.

But, nevertheless, if work didn't want him ...

"Hello?"

Kai swallowed. Anger buoyed him past the butterflies. "Hey, Ray. It's –"

"Kai. You _did_ ring!" The exultant tone in Ray's voice took Kai aback. It apparently took Ray aback too, because he coughed and mumbled, "I didn't think you'd – "

"In the habit of giving your number out to any random man who comes along, then?" Kai said sarcastically.

"No. I just thought you wouldn't ring_ yet_," Ray defended himself. Kai grunted. "You all right? You sound odd."

_He can tell already_? Kai thought incredulously, then rebuked himself for it. There was no way that Ray could tell from the limited times they had spoken to each other since they had met that Kai wasn't feeling right. Out loud, he answered, more truthfully than he had intended, "Just work trouble."

"You looked bad today, too. The massages are brilliant, but they don't cure bloodshot eyes."

"I'm fine."

"Right."

Good sarcasm, Kai thought. He held his silence, listened to Ray's breathing. He sounded out of breath. Kai lost himself for a second in a little fantasy that Ray had run straight out of the shower to answer the phone.

"So-o," Ray said awkwardly. "Want to meet up?"

"Yeah."

* * *

So, yeah. Let me know what you think. :) Any guesses as to plot? Any qualms about characterisation? And who was Kai's boyfriend, anyway?

Flames are fun too. The heating in my university accomodation is glitchy.

My apologies for the necessary repost.

xIlbx


	5. Chapter 5

I'm annoyed. There's a _one thousand _word count discrepancy between this and MS Word. Srsly, wut?

Anyway, I'm doing the daft thing of posting straight away again, so feel free to yell at me if you spot anything. I did give it a cursory go-over, but I'm tired. I really should stop doing this, I'm such a review-whore.

More anways, thank you ever so much to **nijigoneko**, **Panicchanne**l (your penname apears to be allergic to Underline), **Pixxy. Dust**, **Chaseha-Wing**, **Mishiroro**, **Lirin Sama** and **Kinomiya** for your reviews! They were all lovely! :D

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Their conversation hadn't lasted long, just the specifics of when and where they would meet; both were suggested by Ray and dazedly agreed to by Kai, who couldn't think of anywhere that he wouldn't see someone from work.

He hadn't been able to think of anything else all that day and when he got up the following morning he was no better. That was why he was still wandering around in his boxers at one o'clock in the afternoon, swearing at the cat and complaining to the walls that he had nothing to do to kill time until he needed to leave the house.

Six hours until he would see Ray again.

He was also aware that he had nothing to wear but had forbidden himself to even think that because of the sheer amount of girlyness it implied. He _did_ have something to wear. He had lots of clothes. Entire drawers full of clothes. Not a problem. Not at all a contributing factor to his continued state of underwear-wearing.

Then there was a knock on the door, and he remembered that Hiro was coming around doing his monthly check on the state of his tenants' flats.

Then he remembered the cat.

"Fuck," he mouthed. Stepping as lightly as possible, he rushed over to the cat, which was abnormally contorted and happily licking its own arse _while sitting on his bed_ (why did he keep the thing again?). He grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and ran over to the fire escape by the back of the kitchen, virtually flinging it through the cat flap.

Of course, it didn't take to that treatment kindly, or silently. In fact it let out a yowl more suited to a situation where Kai had cut its paw off or something equally awful.

Hiro had obviously decided either that Kai wasn't in, or that the unholy racket from the cat needed investigating, as he unlocked the door.

Kai had about two seconds to think up a shedload of lies. He could do that. It was practically his job.

The door opened and Hiro stepped inside, fully dressed (of course), hair pulled back into a flawless ponytail (stop thinking about Ray, Kai, this is _not_ a good time) and just generally making Kai feel remarkably grubby. Understandable, given that he was standing in the doorway to the kitchen dressed only in yesterday's boxers.

"Oh, morning, Kai." Hiro hid his surprise pretty well, but not well enough. Kai seized the initiative.

"Forgot you were coming today." Everyone knew the best lies were composed partly from the truth, after all.

"Obviously," Hiro said. One corner of his mouth quirked up in an attempt at a friendly grin. Kai didn't even bother faking anything; he just glared.

There was a fair amount of bad blood between the two of them; too many arguments over whose responsibility it was to repair this and that, or sort out damp in the roof, or summer ant infestations. Neither of them knew the meaning of 'graceful retreat' and they had only come to terms with 'compromise' about six months ago when they had ended up brawling over something as fucking stupid as a broken window catch. (It was the cat's fault, so Kai had denied direct responsibility with a clear conscience.)

To his satisfaction, Hiro looked unnerved. "I thought you worked at this time of day."

"Had a migraine yesterday," Kai lied smoothly. "Took today off too."

"That's never happened before, has it?" Hiro was now trying to fake concern, badly. Really badly. Quick bastard, though, Kai had to give him that. There must be someone in his life who suffered from them; most non-suffers just thought migraines were really bad headaches. Kai was, in fact, a non-sufferer, but his grandfather had been afflicted by them whenever he missed a meal. Seeing the effects had tended to result in the closest teenaged Kai had ever come to feeling sympathy for the old bastard.

"Still haven't figured out what my trigger is," Kai said curtly. "Get one a year if I'm unlucky." That was sort of true, if the truth was twisted so far back on itself that it screamed. He knew the trigger for his dissociations and memory blanks - rage, generally helped along by a healthy dose of stress - but yes, he did tend to only get them yearly.

Hence why having two in as many days was an alarming prospect best not thought about.

"Did I wake you up?" Hiro asked. There might have actually been a glimmer of true concern there this time, but Kai was too busy thinking up an excellent explanatory lie to notice;

"Nah, fucking cats've been throwing a fit on the fire escape all morning."

"Oh. Right."

He bought it, Kai realised, and tried to stop himself grinning and sagging against the doorway like an idiot.

"Mind if I ..." Hiro gestured vaguely around the flat.

"Fine. I'm gonna get dressed." No way was he standing around mostly naked with Hiro in his flat.

A very uncomfortable thought struck him. Hiro was, in all likelihood, the first man to see this much of his body in five years. He didn't go swimming or anything. Technically, he had been in his boxers both times at the massage place, but there was always a towel covering the parts of him that weren't being attended to just then.

That meant Hiro had seen more of him than _Ray_ had.

Not nice. Not at all.

Now in a bad mood, he stomped over to the bathroom door and yanked it open. He noticed Hiro's eyes flicking downwards and wondered about that momentarily, before he shut the door and remembered that his boxers had a hole in. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Swearing to himself, he got in the shower and started fiddling with the taps. Stupid thing went from icy to boiling with no in-between unless he ran the water for a good minute or so first.

"You'd think at the price of this place, I'd get a shower that works!" he shouted through the door, shutting off the taps briefly to make quite sure Hiro heard him complain.

"Call a plumber, you miserly bastard," Hiro retorted.

"Oh, fuck off," Kai muttered under his breath as he turned the shower back on again and gingerly stepped under the water. Bearable.

Still Hiro carried on walking around the flat, making a ridiculous amount of noise. It was annoying, to put it mildly. Kai had a ... a ... _date _(shit)in … less than six hours (_shit!)_, and he couldn't even have an anticipatory wank.

Oh, great, now he that he had managed to combine the thought of wanking with the thought of Ray, his cock had decided that _it_, at least, didn't care about Hiro.

So he spent the next few minutes determinedly thinking about all the ways in which the (date) meeting could go wrong. By the time that he finally came out of the shower, his skin so red that it looked sunburnt, his stomach felt cold and tight with nerves.

Hiro was gone. Thank heavens. He hadn't left any anally retentive little post-it notes lying around either, saying "X is not good enough, etc., etc." The last one had pointed out "You have an unusually large amount of tuna in your cupboard but no mayonnaise in your fridge, why is this?" Kai had kicked up one hell of a fuss over that, pointing out that Hiro's nosiness was probably illegal and definitely not proper conduct and that his eating habits were absolutely _so_ far out of Hiro's business that he shouldn't even have gone near either the fridge or the cupboards.

Fucking cat.

He walked over to the fire escape and peered through the glass planes in the door, careful to angle his body away as he had dropped his towel on the bathroom floor as soon as his body was less than dripping wet. Nope, no cat. It would probably saunter back in several hours hence, smirking all over its whiskered face and trailing the internal organs of some small garden creature all over the carpet.

"So much more trouble than you're worth," he whispered sulkily. The glass misted up with his breath. He stood there for a few minutes longer, chasing threads of thought aimlessly and happy to get nowhere constructive. Draughts seeped through the tiny gap between door and doorframe, raising goose pimples on his bare skin, but that didn't concern him. What _did_ jolt him back into a reality where Ray's lips weren't making their slow way down his neck was the phone ringing.

"Yeah?" He leant on the kitchen counter. The voice that replied nearly made his feet slip from underneath him.

"What's this I hear about Ivanov giving you sick leave?"

Oh, fuck _you,_ world, Kai thought despairingly.

"Shouldn't you speak to him about this first?" he asked, hating the way that he already sounded like a whiny teenager again.

"I have." There was a short silence of the "You. Talk. Now," variety that Kai remembered so well from endless dinners at the opposite ends of the long dining table when he was younger.

This wasn't _fair_. His grandfather _never_ rang him. His grandfather, quite frankly, didn't give a shit about what happened to that branch of his all-encompassing empire, he had made that clear enough when Tala had rung him to discuss the ominous possibility of a quarterly shortfall a year ago.

So this was personal then. This was a "let's check my only living relative isn't fucking his life up in ways that would reflect badly on me" phone call, then.

"Then he's no doubt told you that he thought there was a need for it," Kai said sourly. Ah, familiar teenage "better luck getting blood from a stone than information from me" attitude, how he had missed it. Not.

"Indeed. I thought I would see what you had to say for yourself."

"He threatened to sack me unless I took a week off. I couldn't really do anything!"

There was a "More information, please?" silence. Kai stonewalled it easily, kicking at the counter with his heel. His skin was nearly back to normal colour now, and his body was undergoing that peculiar tension that warned of oncoming shivers.

"Ivanov told me that you had passed out at your desk, in mid-conversation." Another probing silence. Kai counted the goosepimples on his right arm. "Was the reason you did so also the reason that I'm thinking of, Kai?"

"Probably."

"I thought you sorted that out."

Kai ground his teeth together. "It's not the sort of thing that you can sort out."

"Everything can be sorted out. It's your own fault for not keeping those psychiatrist appointments I made you."

"I was sixteen. I didn't think I needed them."

"Does that mean you think you need them now?"

Kai swore colourfully in the doubtful privacy of his mind. Damn the manipulative old bastard, damn him to the _th layer of Dante's hell.

"No, I don't need them!" he retorted, more angrily than he had intended. He closed his eyes. "I have a week off, that's like a holiday, and I'll relax. You know it only happens when I'm really stressed."

"If I hear of it happening again at any point in the next six months …" He didn't need to complete the sentence. It was the same threat he had been trotting out since Kai had first got a job at the business fresh out of university; do what I want or I'll fire you and forbid anyone to provide you a reference.

"It won't," Kai promised, and hung up. Then he paced around the flat, kicking at anything that happened to get in the way and wondering how in the world he could make that promise with any degree of certainty. He didn't know why he had flown into such dramatic rages two days in a row, what was to stop it happening again?

_Ray_, his libido reminded him optimistically, _You'll fuck all that tension away_.

Oh yeah.

Ray.

Date.

He was _not_ going to put his pillow over his head like a girl.

Or start thinking about clothes again.

For fuck's sake.

* * *

He ended up being nearly twenty minutes late to meet Ray in the quaint little Italian restaurant that he had never heard of, because he had been rowing with second thoughts every single step of the way. Everything from 'was it presumptuous to trim his pubic hair?' to 'should he wear aftershave and if so which one?'. Blue shirt or black shirt with red trim?

Leaving the house after all that fuss had gone something like this:

Door handles were his worst enemy; every time he took hold of one his brain assailed him with the knowledge that he was breaking five years of productive bachelor-ness for a (fucking gorgeous) man that he had only met twice. It reminded him about promotions and money, and weird, over the shoulders looks from his colleagues and when all of that failed and he was getting into his car and programming the SatNav system, it pulled out the biggest gun in the mental arsenal; it reminded him about _Wyatt_.

Wyatt's suicide was a bad subject. A bad, bad subject that Kai had never dealt with, just buried it as deeply as he could and tried to convince himself that it didn't matter, that he didn't care. Whenever it resurfaced, it was like tearing off a thin, new scab and bleeding dry all over again; it _hurt_. The only reason that Kai didn't call the date off right then and there and scramble back inside and drink himself stupid just like old times was that the old guilt had resurged so strongly that he momentarily couldn't move, couldn't see what was in front of him, only Wyatt's happy face as he had bade him farewell that last day.

"This," he muttered to himself when he had recovered enough equilibrium to think straight, "is not a good start." It wasn't even just a serious case of cold feet anymore, now he had a legitimate reason to call off the date. Namely; he was a mental fuckup.

It would be unfair on Ray, to be caught up in some unresolved-grief-riddled rebound.

Screw starting again. He didn't deserve to start again.

As his hand closed around the car door handle, his phone vibrated in his pocket. A text.

From Ray. He swallowed and pressed 'View'.

_Got cold feet? I'll warm them up._ _x_

Kai read the text two more times, and a slow grin spread across his face. The heavy black weight slid from its perch on his chest.

That was quite possibly the bravest and also the cheekiest thing anyone had ever said to him. A quick check of his watch confirmed that he was already ten minutes late. That was more than enough for Ray to start to doubt him, but instead of sit there passively and upset himself (as Wyatt would certainly have done), Ray had sent a message that simultaneously said "Are you still coming?" and "It'll be worth it if you do."

He'd be flat out lying if he didn't admit that such forwardness made the pit of his stomach swirl with anticipation.

He tapped the steering wheel with his free hand while he tried to think of a suitably clever reply. Failing, he just keyed in,

_Thanks. On my way_.

SatNav was reliable for once, and he executed a brilliant parallel park close to the restaurant sign. The little restaurant wasn't somewhere he had ever heard of before, but then, he had a feeling that he was in the gay part of the city now.

Swallowing down a nervous lump in his throat with difficulty, he opened the door. A bell jingled above his head. He walked up to the "Please Wait Here" sign, and looked around.

The rustic wooden tables seated two, though here and there they had been pushed together to accommodate larger parties. The ceiling was low but the front windows were huge and there were wall lights at the back of the room, so it didn't seem as claustrophobic as Kai had thought at first glance. The lights at the back of the room also illuminated a row of five closed doors.

The third one along from the left swung open and a tall waiter bustled out, heading purposefully towards Kai. His hair was so blond that it looked grey. Or maybe his hair was going grey prematurely, who knew?

Blue eyes, too.

What, so his brain had stopped reminding him about Wyatt, it was now reminding him of _Max_? That didn't even make sense.

"I'm-" he began in the gruffest tone he could muster, only to be interrupted as the waiter swept up to him.

"Kai, yes?" The waiter had a faint Italian accent.

"Yes."

"_Eccellente_, please follow me!" He led a bemused Kai to the doors on the far right. Kai wondered if he just put that accent on for the sake of the restaurant. The waiter opened the door and stuck his head round. "Ray, your man's here." He turned his head and gave Kai a shameless once-over. "If you don't want him, I'll take him."

Kai shifted his weight from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with being talked about.

"What would Oli, say, Enrique?" Ray's voice sent a shiver down Kai's spine. Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door.

"Oli could join us … so could you." The waiter laughed sheepishly at the glare he was obviously getting through the small amount he had opened the door. Trying to be unobtrusive, Kai craned his neck to try and see. Just as he thought he could catch a glimpse of black hair, Enrique made his efforts void by swinging open the door fully, with a wicked little smirk that implied he had been blocking Kai's view deliberately.

It was so cliché that he hated himself for it, but the mere sight of Ray made Kai's breath snag in his throat. He was wearing a white linen shirt with the two top buttons open. It was short-sleeved and fairly tight-fitting, and Kai found his eyes involuntarily straying over his tanned, muscular arms and flat stomach. He wanted to kiss the visible hollow where Ray's neck met his collarbone. His eyes wandered downwards without any sayso from him, and, flustered he yanked them back up to eye level before he had a chance to see more than the colour of his trousers (black).

Ray's hair wasn't so tightly scraped back as it had been when Kai had seen him previously (maybe it was a work regulation?), he had let enough fall around his face to give the initial impression of a chin-to-shoulder length wavy bob. It made his eyes look even bigger.

"You … you look nice," he said at last, fumbling for the words. God, that's such a stupid thing to say, he berated himself. Nice? _Nice?_ I went to university for four years and got a first class degree and all I can come up with as an adjective is 'nice'?

Ray gave him a pleased little smile (it gave him dimples; Kai wanted to touch them) and brushed self-consciously at his trousers.

"So do you."

Kai looked disbelievingly down at the clothes he had eventually decided were less awful than the rest of his wardrobe; a royal blue cotton shirt and his best pair of black trousers that he usually only wore for the horrible work occasions where he had to 'dress up'.

"Thanks," he muttered, just to go along with accepted protocol. At a loss for what to do next (pinning Ray to the wall and setting about exploring all that tanned skin with his lips and tongue didn't quite fit with the setting), he reverted back to work manners and held out his hand.

Mischief gleamed in Ray's eyes like a flash of golden lightning, and he took Kai's hand lightly in his own, bent forwards and kissed it. His tongue darted out and lapped at the third knuckle, and a shiver shot up Kai's spine with such force that he physically quivered.

"Cocktease." The word left his mouth before he had even fully registered it in his head, and he froze, hoping Ray wouldn't be offended. On the contrary, when Ray straightened up again, he was grinning widely.

"Hey, it broke the ice," he said causally. Kai grunted his agreement. "Come on then," Ray stepped back into the room and held the door open for Kai.

It was like a giant version of the booths Kai liked in the bar he was sometimes dragged to by Max and the others after work. There was wooden panelling everywhere, big comfy cushions turning a bench into something more akin to a sofa, parallel to which ran a table of a good, not knee-bruising height.

"This is nice," he said. Nice. Again. Why didn't he just shoot himself in the foot and get it over and done with?

"Yeah, it's one of the VIP suites." Ray walked past him and settled down on the plush seat. Kai might have imagined it, but he could have sworn he felt the lightest touch imaginable on his rear. "It's pretty expensive normally, but my uncle's a chef here and I helped get Enrique, the waiter you saw, and the head chef Oliver together, so since it was empty, I claimed it."

"Ah, nepotism and blackmail," Kai said under his breath. He half-shut his eyes and watched Ray through lowered eyelashes to see how he would take his sense of humour.

"Exactly!" Ray let out a peal of laughter, then patted the opposite side of the table. "Sit down already." Kai did so. His knee bumped Ray's and he suppressed another shiver.

"So, I presume we're in the gay bit of the city?" he asked awkwardly.

"O-oh, you're_ really_ not out," Ray said with a chuckle. "Yeah, this is GayVille Central here."

"Are you _very_ out, then?" Kai tried to keep the irritation from his voice – he hadn't like the tinge of pity in Ray's voice just then. He managed to cut his tone down to merely mocking, and Ray laughed and flicked his hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I suppose so. I don't go to the clubs much anymore, makes me feel old, but there's more than that to the area. Like this place." He waved his hands around expansively, then poked a menu that Kai hadn't even noticed was there. "Great food. See what you want."

"You've already picked, then?" Kai said distractedly as he eyed the choices. Only now did he remember that he hadn't eaten anything all day and was starving as a result.

"I had twenty minutes to spare, didn't I?" Ray's tone was light and teasing, but Kai looked up at him and saw nervousness flash briefly in his eyes. That made him simultaneously feel guilty and relieved – with the exception of Tala, he wasn't used to people acting so self-possessed around him.

"Sorry about that," he muttered, staring fixedly at the menu and trying to look thoroughly involved in a choice between a _Pollo Panino_ and _Insalata Pollo e Pancetta_. Before Ray could reply, he backtracked the conversation away from the sensitive area. "How old is too old for clubs, then?"

"Twenty seven and two weeks."

"Happy belated birthday," Kai said with a smirk. Ray grinned back.

"Thanks. You?"

"Twenty seven too."

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Ray called. Enrique stuck his head around the door.

"_Ciao_, you ready to order yet?" He looked at Kai.

Damn. That meant that he knew Ray had already chosen, which meant that he had known that he had been late arriving. Ugh. Embarrassing. He hated being embarrassed. He hated people thinking false things about him – and surely Enrique had a bad impression of him, from being late? Oh, he didn't know. When was the last time he'd been on a date, for fuck's sake? What did he know about any of this? How stupid must he look?

Suddenly feeling surly, he shrugged and stared at the menu blindly.

After a few seconds of this, he felt Ray's leg press against his firmly, not moving away. With trepidation, he looked up. Ray wore an expression of mixed curiosity and concern.

"Fine," he said. He sounded sulky, which was stupid. "I'll have the _Pollo Panino_."

"Ok, and I know yours, Ray, _caro_. Coming right up." The door closed and there was silence in the little room. Ray's leg was warm against his. Kai clung to that like a lifeline as he tried to yank himself out of the awful mood he had fallen into.

"What's up?"

Kai leant his head on one hand and shrugged. He hadn't meant to answer, but Ray put his head down on the table in order to get into his eyeline and raised his eyebrows high. It looked childish and silly, and made him smile. "It's been a shit day. Shit week, really."

"Ah, ok." Ray's head was still on the table. It looked like an uncomfortable position but he wasn't showing any signs of moving. "And here was me thinking your feet were cooling down again."

Kai grunted. Ray kept looking at him; he was hiding his nerves very well but Kai could see the faint echoes swirling in the eyes and in the set of his jaw.

"I haven't done this in a while," he muttered, averting his eyes from Ray's.

"Me neither."

"How long, then?" Kai retorted, more than a tinge of challenge in his voice.

"A year."

Kai snorted with bitter laughter.

"Five."

"Points for you, then." Ray's tone was both joking and warning. It's not a competition, the subtext said. And he _still_ had his head on the table.

"Isn't that uncomfortable?" Kai gestured at the crooked position. Ray grinned and lifted his head, propping it on his bent palm in a mirror of Kai's position.

"Nah, not too bad. I do martial arts, I'm using to making my body do weird things."

About six things to say came into Kai's head, but at least four of them were sex-related. Ray saw the look on his face and began chuckling. Kai couldn't help but join in, and soon the mood in the room had swung back to amenable again.

Ray was telling Kai about some of the weird and funny things that he came across at his job when Enrique came back into the room, bearing a wine bottle and two glasses.

"Dinner's on the way, gorgeous!" he said with a wink as he left. Ray sighed and shook his head.

"Incorrigible," he muttered.

"Is he like that with everybody?"

"Yeah, more or less. Why, jealous?"

Kai felt his face heating up even as he shook his head in denial.

"Ha. Yeah, Enrique flirts like other people breathe. He's all talk, though. He loves his Oli." Ray snorted, clearly at some private mental joke.

"And the wine?"

Ray's ears went red. "I ordered it while I was waiting. Though if you didn't turn up I'd just get pissed instead."

Guilt came knocking on Kai's conscience again, but he ignored it, poured himself a glass and raised it.

"To being here," he said. Cheesy, really, really cheesy, but true. Ray smiled again, that soft smile that showed his dimples (Kai _still_ wanted to poke them or kiss them or _something_) and raised his glass too.

Their legs were touching again.

They returned to discussing Ray's job. Kai stopped listening every now and again in order to just stare at Ray and silently disbelieve that he was actually here at all, but he picked up the main, amusing bits. Lots of snorts and chuckles and laughter. Normally he only laughed at other people's misfortune or at shitty comedy on television if he was drunk (although they were drinking rather quickly they were still only halfway through one bottle so no chance of that … yet …), so this was … different. Different and good … and what had _happened_ to his vocabulary today?

He said as much to Ray, complete with "what good is a first-class degree if I can't speak worth a damn?"

"Lucky," Ray commented dryly, "I don't have that excuse."

Kai wasn't entirely sure what to say in answer that wouldn't come across as insensitive or patronising or possibly both, so as a crap distraction he shifted forwards in his seat, moving his knee further up Ray's thigh. Ray grinned wickedly in response, and a few seconds later his shoeless foot was working its way up Kai's leg, starting at the ankle. The sexual tension from earlier returned; the familiar coil was forming in the pit of Kai's stomach.

By the time that Ray's foot had reached his knee, they were both leaning forwards towards each other. Ray looked even more stunning from this close – and god, those two tiny dimples were driving Kai _insane_. Ray was even worse off than he was; his breath was noticeably uneven. Which made him even sexier, to be honest.

Fuck it, he wasn't a patient person. Working on more muscle memory than anything else (five years seemed like a longer and longer time period with every awkward, inept thought that travelled through his head), he reached out and put one hand in the crook of Ray's elbow. The skin was warm and soft, and he could feel Ray quiver under his touch, see his eyes darken and the lids lower just a fraction.

They moved forwards in unison, heads miraculously tilting in opposite directions, lips _so fucking close_ –

"Food is ser- oh, I'm interrupting, I see."

Kai turned and gave Enrique the glare that he usually reserved for Tyson at his most deliberately inept, but the tall blond just grinned back and raised the two loaded plates he was holding a fraction higher. Ray sat back too, fiddling with his hair and looking flustered.

"Impeccable timing, Enrique," he scolded.

"Hey, I'm gone, I'm gone," Enrique said with another unrepentant grin. He gave them their food and swept out without another word, though the gleam in his eyes spoke of an awful lot he_ could_ have said.

There was a short silence. Eschewing cutlery, Kai picked up his glorified chicken toastie and took a mouthful. It was … he sought for a word, then came to the disturbing realisation that every adjective he could come up with he could just as easily apply to the man sitting opposite him, who was toying with some disgusting mushroom thing. Nice, good, delicious, gorgeous, amazing, delicious …

"If I wasn't so hungry, I think I'd have a one-track mind right now," he admitted through a mouthful of tasty chicken. (Tasty? Well, he hadn't had a chance to test yet but it seemed like that one would work too.)

Ray raised his eyebrows. "Wine going to your head?"

Kai nearly choked on his food with indignation. "I could drink the whole bottle and you wouldn't notice a difference!" Ray laughed and put a forkful of the sticky white stuff in his mouth.

Kai. Mind. Gutter. Remove.

He missed Ray's foot.

That had been a weird thought. _Was_ he drunk? No, definitely not. God only knows he knew what that felt like.

Maybe he was happy.

What an odd thought.

* * *

Yeah, this could have been quite a bit longer, but like I said, review-whore. The next chapter you should get some action, namely because doing Nano made me realise I have a sli-ight kink for drunk!sex. Or drunk messing around. Anything along those lines. So, they need to get pissed first. xD And like Kai said, that'll take a while. XD

It was annoying, right, I took a few seconds off from writing this on Monday to jot down a scene for a future chapter involving Kai getting off with someone who's not Ray (guesses? I think I've hinted it pretty heavily) and somehow ended up writing 4,000 words of complete PWP in, like, two hours. I was like, wtf, brain? I'll probably never even use it!

Oh, well done to Mishiroro for guessing who Kai's ex was. :D

Since this has gone and grown a plot, a few things in the earlier chapters have started to stick out irritatingly, so at some point I might do a clean-up write. Maybe wait until I've finished, I don't know.

So, next chapter should hopefully be something to look forward to.

Opinions? Would you like me to stop blethering on about the cat? Are Ray and Kai convincing you? Did the inclusion of Voltaire feel forced?

I had some more things to say, but I've forgotten. I'm tired. Got to clean my room before tomorrow when the cleaner arrives. Ugh. Have a good read and let me know anything that you think of it!

xIlbx


	6. Chapter 6

**Kinomyia**, **neverdeadonlydreaming**, **Pixxy. Dust**, **Mishiroro**, **Tootchy**, **The Golden Starfish** (you get two thank yous for two reviews, Nikki! :D), **LovelySinner7**, **Lirin Sama** and **The Beyblade Community Project** for your reviews! :D *hugs everyone*.

I would just like to say OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT and that I can guarantee you'll want to lynch me by the end of this chapter.

If you go here http: /awsumz. deviantart. com /art /Rei-for-Vari-203044410 (minus spaces etc) you'll see the EPIC picture of Ray that I paid a friend of mine to do. Comment it and love it, for it is amazing.

Have far too much Kai monologue and unsubtle power-play and SUCH SHITTY SMUT.

* * *

For the last few seconds, they had eaten in silence. That idiotic waiter's interruption hadn't done anything to cool Kai's urges (he was almost at the point of needing to shift in his chair), but it had made him more cautious. It had reminded him exactly what he was doing, the safe, comfortable life he was risking for this walking cliché, this dark-haired, handsome stranger who he knew next to nothing about.

It was the date thing, he decided. (He was staring steadily at his messy plate, but it was obvious from the prickly feeling of his skin that Ray was watching him.) Maybe he would have felt less uneasy if it had just been a passing fuck; if they had just met up one night and slipped off somewhere dark and dirty to do the deed ... ah, he should probably stop his train of thought right there. He swallowed, and quickly grabbed his glass and downed the wine to try and cover it up. Like metal to a magnet, he found his gaze rising to meet Ray's continued stare.

He could quite happily stare at Ray in this strange sort of silence forever. It was tense, fuck yes, but it wasn't awkward. There was expectation, but it wasn't overpowering. Easy to just let his mind wander back to that tantalising thought of Ray up against a brick wall, his hips held firmly in Kai's hands …

"Penny for your thoughts?" Ray asked. There was a smear of white sauce on his lower lip.

Kai rolled his eyes. Peace broken. He hated that saying. Well, he understood that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the words. To be more precise, then, he hated the intrusiveness of it. Hated how people assumed that whatever was occupying his mind would happily spew from his lips as soon as they asked in such a clichéd fashion.

Ok, so his thoughts were hardly taboo or particularly embarrassing. He was imagining having sex with someone who he had come on a date to, pretty much, have sex with. Saying that aloud would hardly disadvantage him.

But ... that wasn't the _point_. It was the principle of the thing. He wasn't someone who volunteered information. About anything. Ever. Call it a love of privacy, introvertism, a defence mechanism, call it whatever the fuck you want. When someone went digging in his head, he knew to slam the door and lock it securely.

Anyway, why would anyone _want_ to be outspoken? Take Tyson for a cringe-worthy example. Even - no, no, _especially_ the stuff nobody wanted to hear, like the distance that Makoto could projectile-vomit milk or how many days he had been sleeping on the couch for after _this _particular argument.

Why the fuck was he thinking about that?

"Penny for _your_ thoughts," he said. He in no way sounded defensive. Or overly nasty.

Ray raised his eyebrows, absorbing the scathing tone with little apparent impact. (Had Ray ever met Tala, Kai wondered?)

"I was wondering which of two directions this is going to take," Ray replied. He tapped his fork on his plate in a quick arrhythmic pattern.

"Hm?"

Ray had nearly finished his food, Kai noticed. He toyed uncertainly with the bread he still held crudely in both hands, feeling wrong-footed.

Seriously. Wrong-footed by the speed Ray ate food. The fuck? Pull yourself together, for fuck's sake, you fucking _pussy_.

Putting his food down, he took a couple of deep breaths and performed the familiar mental routine of shoving everything disconcerting into a room and slamming the door tightly shut. When he met Ray's eyes again, he was able to see that Ray was nervous too. He still hadn't elaborated on his weird comment, for a start, and secondly his gaze was skittering all over Kai's face, all over the table. Kept tucking his hair behind his ear, too. Honestly, by this time in his life Kai had taken care to eradicate such obvious giveaways; had no one ever drawn it to Ray's attention?

"Hm?" Kai repeated the questioning noise with more volume this time. Ray visibly jumped and smiled sheepishly.

Kai wondered what that waiter would have thought of if he had come in and seen them just then, staring apparently at each other but in fact so caught up in their own thoughts that they didn't even register each other. He wondered what Ray had been thinking.

That little smile was sort of sweet.

(Kai would like to forget that he ever thought that sentence, please.)

He crossed his arms and rested them on the table. "Cat got your tongue?" He didn't expect to see an unmistakable flash of irritation to cross Ray's face; absurdly, it relaxed him. "I touch a nerve?"

"One of those badly buried childhood stings," Ray said. His face and his voice all screamed nonchalance.

A spark of temper mixed with disbelief in Kai's mind. People could make _fun_ of Ray? Of this polite, charming, fucking physically perfect man? How_ dare_ they?

"Jealousy," he said, almost before he had realised his mouth was opening. Ray grinned. The warmth of it dissolved that hard little yellow glint that had suddenly appeared in his eyes. Defensiveness, Kai realised belatedly. Ray had been preparing for a fight for a second there.

"I didn't always look like this, you know," Ray said. He too leaned forwards onto the table. One forearm was resting on the table with a façade of ease – broken because the other hand was tangled in his hair.

Kai really wanted to grab that hand. He didn't quite know why.

"No?" he said, for something to say. Something to show he was listening.

"Nah." Ray's fingers tightened in his hair. "Only really started to bulk up when I hit fifteen. Before that I was just some little scrawny boy who apparently looked a bit like a cat."

Kai made a bemused noise in his throat.

"Yeah." Ray's head dipped to one side awkwardly.

Kai realised his own hypocrisy; he was digging around in Ray's head, encouraging the man to unearth silly old childish insults. Probing and prying with so little concern that no-one would ever have guessed how much he valued his own mental privacy. He knew he should stop, but ... it was a relief to see Ray like this. Taken aback. Sheepish and nervous and embarrassed; completely stripped of that beautiful but aloof polished veneer of charm with which he had started out the evening.

"Mainly the eyes," Ray was saying, "their colour and their shape – shape's Chinese, colour, of course, isn't – but also the teeth." He bared his teeth briefly at Kai, enough for Kai to see that Ray did have unusually long and pointed canine teeth.

"I'd say you're more like a vampire," Kai said. He needed to call a halt to the introspection in case Ray started to get embarrassingly emotional. Yeah, that was absolutely what he was thinking. "You know, strong, dark, weird eyes, pointy teeth, sexy as fuck."

Caught off guard, Ray huffed laughter. "Nah, that'd be more like you." The playfulness in his eyes lit them up like lamps. Kai's breath snagged momentarily in his throat and his trousers tightened. "Pale as a ghost, quiet – don't think I haven't noticed how much I've been talking compared to you – and you've got pretty weird eyes yourself." He finally let go of his hair and reached over the table, touching the back of his fingers ever so gently, ever so quickly, against Kai's cheek.

Heat raced from that one tingling, burning patch on his cheek straight down to his groin. And there was no chance that Ray hadn't noticed his momentary inability to breathe that time, because he'd gasped out loud.

There was a table between them. Ray couldn't see under the table. It would be fine to just … undo his trousers, right? Just to alleviate the pressure?

And he was still staring at Ray and Ray was still staring at him and they had leaned forward so far that he could feel Ray's breath on his face, and if something didn't happen soon Kai was going to explode. Possibly literally.

"So," Ray's voice was suddenly raspy, like there was something stuck in his throat (stop thinking _right_ there). "Now that I've embarrassed myself a bit, I'll ask again. Penny for your thoughts?"

Kai would like to have had difficulty in remembering what he had been thinking about a mere couple of minutes ago; however it was, right now, _all _he was thinking about. And Ray had just told him a very personal thing. And right now even mental privacy came a sad second to the hot whirlwind of lust that was rapidly filling up all available space in his head. So, ok, fine, the least he could do was to admit his little fantasy of;

"Fucking you in a back street."

Ray laughed delightedly. His smile was brilliant and his eyes were bright and there was _still_ that stupid sauce on his lip and, really, that _did _it.

Kai pushed aside his plate (about three bites of sandwich left; fuck it) and wiped the worst of the grease from his mouth with the back of his hand. A movement out of the corner of his eye made him bring his head up again, petrified that Ray was running (he would never be brave enough to do this again, never), but he wasn't. He was leaning forwards too, eyes fixed on Kai with an intensity that might still have frightened Kai away had his intentions been any less … erect.

A fractional head movement was all it took on both sides to make their lips meet. The kiss was soft and anxious and chaste, where the only movement was their closed lips bumping against each other.

The many, many differences between Ray and Wyatt niggled at the edges of Kai's brain. Both had soft cheeks, but Wyatt's was due to still having bum-fluff at twenty two, while Ray's skin was that silky, almost liquid smoothness of a careful, diligent wet shave. And just … just more little things, like smell and the angle of their heads and the quiet sound of their breathing.

His resolve began to shrivel away. He opened his eyes, only to meet Ray's calm golden eyes.

"Come on," Ray whispered. His mouth barely moved. Only the barest puff of air brushed against Kai's lips, but it was enough. Clarity blanketed his mind even as arousal burnt and twisted anew in the pit of his stomach.

Ok. This wasn't Wyatt. Well, that was ok. His sexual experience didn't revolve around Wyatt, after all. There had been several previously. So it wasn't like he didn't know what he should be doing right now.

He was jolted back to reality as Ray's open lips touched his gently but firmly. Automatically, he opened his as well. A shiver ran down his spine as their mouths moulded perfectly together. It was soft and warm and … and like _fuck_ was he letting Ray do this.

By resting most of his weight on his forearms, he was able to lean even further over the table, pushing Ray backwards, pressing their lips together so hard that he could actually feel Ray's teeth. With a moment's difficulty, he shifted all his weight to one arm and put his free hand on the back of Ray's head. The black hair was cool and silky underneath his hot hand, and underneath _that_ he could feel the curve of Ray's cranium.

In the loose bundle of lust-triggered reactions that passed for thoughts, the original plan had been to use that grip to pull Ray's head towards him, to wind his fingers into that mass of hair and use it to direct the kissing as he wanted. That had been the original plan. But he hadn't realised how madly erotic he would find just holding the man's head to be. It was to do with the delicacy of that part of the skull (some old titbit subconsciously picked up in teenage biology lessons) and the cool, soft, smooth sheet of hair covering it, and the way that every tiny tilt of Ray's head as he kissed Kai back with delicious ferocity was felt simultaneously by Kai's hand and by his lips.

If just this tiny piece of contact could make his groin throb and burn, then what would more do? He wanted to find out, right _now_, but there was a fucking _table_ in the way!

"Come round," he said, sitting back with reluctance. Ray stared at him for a moment, all wide eyes and red cheeks and redder lips. Kai licked his tingling, almost numb lips and fought to keep his breathing at a normal rate. He had the strangest feeling that Ray was analysing him again.

"Whatever you say, captain," Ray said with a wry smile. Kai frowned in confusion and automatic affront at what was clearly some sort of joke at his expense. All negativity disappeared, however, when Ray stood up, sat on the table and swivelled his legs around. For a second he sat with his feet dangling over the edge and knocking gently against Kai's knees, grinning widely, then he pushed himself off the table and straight onto Kai's lap. He settled down with teasing slowness; it took several seconds before his body was pressed fully against Kai's, polished shoes planted firmly on the seat either side.

"You called?" He was still trying to grin but between licking his lips and breathing heavily, he wasn't having a great deal of success. Kai couldn't resist one last jibe:

"Do you practise being cheesy?" He ensured that he had the last word by kissing Ray again. Any last vestige of nerves or restraint melted into thin air as their lips clashed again.

He couldn't keep his hands still, he had to keep squeezing and pressing Ray's back, his arms, the nape of his neck, wriggling a hand between their bodies to feel his heartbeat under the flimsy pretence of stroking his chest. Just feeling the thrumming, living heat of a _real person, _not a figment of his imagination or words on a sickly glowing computer screen. The hands that slid in return over his body and leaving goose-bumps and electricity in their wake were real too, not his own thinly disguised by fantasies. Solid. Real. Utterly undeniable.

This time, Ray hadn't missed anywhere while shaving. Kai made sure of it, clasping his hands to Ray's cheeks then dragging his fingers down over Ray's jaw to the sides of his throat. Ray shuddered and broke the kiss, tilting his head upwards. Taking the hint, Kai trailed a wet line down Ray's chin and throat before finding his pulse point and pressing his tongue to it. The feel of Ray's rapid heartbeat against his tongue seemed to bypass the rest of his body and go straight to his erection. Despite instantly wanting to cut out his vocal cords in embarrassment, the almost painful resultant surge made him groan. He heard Ray give a hoarse chuckle, and knew that if his blood supply hadn't been occupied elsewhere he would be red-faced.

The world had shrunk to physical sensation and intermittent flashes of colour as his eyes opened and shut involuntarily, but most importantly it had shrunk to the hot twisting pressure in his groin that was corkscrewing itself into a steadily less bearable tightness. He didn't know when he had started to grind against Ray but he knew _exactly_ when Ray started to push back. Two pairs of trousers and underwear separated their erections, but to Kai it felt like nothing at all. He opened his legs further until Ray was sitting on the seat and their groins were completely level and _that_ definitely did it. His stomach muscles tightened. Those tell-tale nerves high in his thighs started to twitch and pulse; he held onto Ray with both hands as the throbbing rose to a blurred peak of lust before uncoiling in a climax that momentarily slid the world out of focus.

It took him several minutes to emerge from post-orgasmic bliss, where the feel of Ray sitting next to him on the bench was warm and pleasant. The first thing that he noticed when he started caring about the world again was that there was an unpleasant squashy feeling in his trousers. For a surreal second, he was a teenager again, thirteen years old and bracing himself against the sinks in the toilet after escaping his delicious history teacher's lesson at the last minute.

But then the facts fell into his head like bricks and he crumbled under their weight.

He was still fully clothed.

They had literally done nothing more than kiss.

Did it get any more premature?

He wanted to die now, please. More relevantly, he wanted to leave now and never, ever make eye contact with Ray again. Blood supply was definitely back to normal now; his face felt like he was suffering from a bad case of sunburn. Or possibly self-combustion. Self-combustion would be good right now.

He stood up gingerly and inspected himself. Oh shit. While his brain fretted away and carefully avoided the question of why hadn't Ray said anything yet, his body kicked up another teenage memory of what to do in situations like these. He took off his trousers, put them back on the wrong way around, then grabbed his jacket from where he had left it at the very beginning of the date and scrabbled to tie it around his waist. There.

"Apparently girls do that too." It was such a non-sequitur that it almost convinced Kai to look at Ray. Almost. He stayed silent and fiddled needlessly with the arms of his jacket. "You know. When their … thing happens."

_What_ had Ray just said? What? Why? The fuck? That was disgusting. He couldn't stop himself glaring out of the corner of his eyes, quickly, not really making eye contact. Ray laughed that same hoarse little chuckle he had made when Kai had groaned – and let's not think about that, Kai. Let's just get on with _forgetting it ever happened_, ok?

"Hey, I need to think about foul things right now."

_Oh_. Add another brick of humiliation: he had managed to completely forget about Ray's arousal. So now Ray thought that he was selfish on top of having no self-control. Fuck. Definitely time to go. Why hadn't he gone before? Well, because then it would have felt like running away, which he never, ever did.

"You have cold feet again," Ray said in an amused tone of voice. Kai spun to face him, letting the familiar hot anger rise through his still-foggy head.

"Oh, I wonder why?"

The problem was that he couldn't keep the anger there now that he was actually looking at Ray. Specifically, looking at that beautiful face with those lips that were still bruised and swollen and on just the right level to – like he's going to want to come near you, after this, Kai.

"I wonder too." And just like before when Kai had pushed him out of his comfort zone with the conversation about being called a cat, the suave mask fell, and even though every scrap of body language Kai could read told him that Ray was still as aroused as all fuck, he was looking at him earnestly. Pleadingly, if Kai could possibly put that word into his head without conjuring up pictures. "I know it's stupidly embarrassing, but, really, I mean, I don't care. Honestly. And if I don't care, then you shouldn't care, right?" A smirk threw confidence back onto his face. "Makes you last longer next time, doesn't it?"

For what felt like the billionth time that day, Kai didn't have a clue how to react. He was still bright red in the face and horrendously embarrassed, but what Ray had said took quite a lot of the sting out of it. Namely that he didn't care and he was already thinking about "next time". He stared at Ray for a while in silence as his brain whirred.

"Maybe." Maybe what? He didn't even know, but that one word did at least signify that he wasn't going to go home right now. That seemed to be enough for Ray. He stood up. Their equal height meant that Ray was looking squarely into Kai's eyes with boldness that made him subconsciously shift his feet and clench his fists. They waited in frozen silence, until Ray stepped forwards and – what? He had suddenly shrunk? – pulled Kai into a loose hug. His face was noticeably lower than Kai's when he raised it again. Uncertainly, Kai put his arms around Ray.

He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had hugged someone. He hadn't even hugged Wyatt, except as sort of foreplay. So it was with relief of being back in familiar territory that he felt Ray's hands gently cup his face and his lips press against his own. The kiss was insanely brief, basically a peck, but Ray pushed his hips (and his just-about-still-there erection) against Kai's suddenly motionless body and whispered,

"Do you want to come to mine?"

"Yes," said Kai's mouth. Kai's entire intelligent thought process did a double take, and then shrugged and decided (sex!) "Yes."

* * *

Gah. I'm so horrific at writing sexy things. There was, what, like, a page of actual making out? I hate my writing.

Ray's probably even more frustrated at the lack of action than you all are, though. xD Next chapter will be enter a certain … well, guess. Go on, guess which character comes in next. You'll probably get it right.

And depending on whether the smex comes out as ff. worthy lemon or just as sheer porn, I might be putting an expanded version on my LJ. I'll link you if I do. Call me paranoid, but I've had het sex fic banned before, and I don't know how many chances ff. gives you.

Thank you very much for reading, and all opinions are welcome. Even if it's just yelling at me for being so shit at everything. Again, I'm very, very sorry for the wait.

xIlbx


	7. Chapter 7

A massive thank you to **PandaPjays**, **LovelySinner7**, **somilia,jenfia et kynia**, **Pixxy. Dust **and **littlelil1991 **for your reviews!

You'll be happy to hear this chapter has **upped the rating**, probably less happy when you realise I've skipped the real nitty-gritty. Sheer paranoia, that's all; well, that and I just wasn't in the mood. At some point I'll write a "full" version and put it on LJ for you all.

* * *

Enrique wolf-whistled as they left. Kai prepared to turn and verbally beat him into submission, only to realise that Ray had thought of it first. He had whirled like a striking snake to grip the doorway of the restaurant and glare inwards and scold in what sounded to Kai like a passable Italian accent;

"Enrico, _caro_, I'll remember this!" Even in profile, he took Kai's breath away; all strong angles with long, black eyelashes framing fiercely narrowed eyes and a faint, shimmering golden layer of perspiration overlaying his cheeks. Automatically, Kai reached to swipe at his own face; his fingers came away moist. His brain still didn't engage; he had grabbed his shirt with both hands and raised it most of the way to his face to wipe it before remembering that this was an expensive shirt that needed dry-cleaning. Oops.

Enrique's careless, amused answer "Have fun!" drew his attention back upwards. Ray wasn't paying attention to Enrique this time, though, his eyes were firmly fixed on Kai's exposed torso and the look of sheer arousal was unmistakable.

All of a sudden, Kai felt in control again. He uncurled his hands and let the shirt slide slowly back down his stomach, then smoothed away some of the creases with deliberately leisurely strokes.

"Bastard," Ray said with a little huff of laughter and a quick flick of his tongue across his lips. Kai fought the urge to do that hair-tossing thing that he'd trained himself out of a decade ago as he replied,

"Of course." A single step closed the distance between them until their noses were touching and Ray was visibly trembling, his eyes flickering nonstop from Kai's eyes to his mouth and back again. Their bodies were so close together that Kai could feel the heat pulsing off Ray. "So," Kai said softly, "do you have a car, or am I driving?"

Ray stepped back and shook his head, briefly rubbing his face with a loosely clenched hand. "Oh, you fucking control freak _bastard_," he muttered as if to himself. Kai smirked unrepentantly. Ray pulled a face at him and started fiddling with his hair again. "Yeah, I don't have a car. You drive."

"Fine." Kai turned and started to walk towards his car. That really had been a brilliant parallel park. "Why not?" he asked without looking back. Ray would follow. Kai might have made a fucking fool of himself before, but right now he had Ray by the balls. Almost literally. Would be literal soon, hopefully.

"Why not what?" Ray's footsteps were briefly hurried as Ray caught up with him. Kai elaborated:

"Why don't you have a car?" They reached his car and he checked three out of four pockets before finding the keys. Managed to press the wrong button twice. Maybe he shouldn't be driving? Nah. He'd be fine. It was just nerves, he definitely wasn't tipsy.

"For the reason that I'm not offering to drive instead of you."

"You mean the fact that you're more drunk than I am, or have you just never learned?" Kai teased.

"I am not more drunk than you are," Ray retorted, straightening up hastily from where he'd been leaning against the car. Kai snorted. "But no. It's because it would be much more illegal for me than for you."

"Why? Oh, insurance," Kai answered his own question confidently, so he was annoyed when Ray's grin grew a mischievous edge.

"Well, that and the fact that I've been banned for a year, yeah."

Kai nearly fell off the kerb with shock. Twenty seven and fully aware of how important cars were he might be, but something not too deeply buried still sat up and went "_Cool!_" at the act of rebellion.

"For what?"

"Um," Ray's hand went back to his hair, "for doing nearly three times the speed limit through two cameras."

Kai rolled his eyes. "Idiot. And stop that, it's annoying." He reached out and pulled Ray's hand away from his hair. Now it was Ray's turn to roll his eyes.

"You sound like my cousin!"

Kai was unperturbed. "I'm sure there are worse people to be compared to."

"You haven't met her yet. Though, actually, I suppose you might tonight, god, hope not, she's perfected the hellish art of cockblocking; I apologise in advance for the fact that she exists - " Ray stopped mid-sentence, but only because Kai had pushed him back against the car door and kissed him quickly but forcefully.

"You can't deny you're drunk," Kai said with a grin. "I mean, you're a motor-mouth even sober, we've established this already -"

"No, I talk a normal amount," Ray protested, much more loudly than was necessary given the space between them could only be measured in millimetres. His hands rested on Kai's hips as if they belonged there. "You're the one who doesn't talk a normal amount." His eyes widened with happy realisation. "_And_ you couldn't get your key to work just now and it only has three buttons!"

"Shut up."

Ray shimmied his hips forwards against Kai in a way that _had_ to be illegal. A shiver ran briefly down Kai's spine and earthed somewhere deep in his abdomen. The movement gave him a solid reminder that Ray was somewhat worse off in that respect. "Make me," Ray said softly.

"Not on a car door, I won't." This messing around outside his car in the twilight when he could be on a soft bed indoors suddenly seemed pointless.

When they were both finally seated in the car, Kai moved to put the key in the ignition. Ray grabbed his wrist.

"Seatbelt." He gestured helpfully at his own securely fastened seatbelt and gave Kai another one of those irritatingly appealing mischievous smiles. They made something inside him go all soft and ... squidgy.

Ok. That word choice was entirely to be blamed on alcohol.

Anyway...

"Seriously?" He hoped his glare suitably conveyed his "Your brother sleeps with _goats_?" sort of utter disbelief and horror.

"Yes!" Ray met his gaze with that same aggravating self-possession he had shown throughout the evening, even putting the alcohol-glaze aside. "You shouldn't really be driving anyway, so the least you can do is buckle up so if you crash we don't both die!"

"I am not going to fucking _crash_!" He slapped the steering wheel to emphasise his disgust for the very idea, but nearly leapt out of his skin when the horn blared. "Shit!" He stared at the steering wheel in disbelief, then as the seconds ticked by he stared at it just so he didn't have to meet Ray's eyes. Having to hear his hysterical laughter was more than enough.

He waited for what felt like an indecent amount of time.

"Oh, shut the fuck _up_!"

That didn't work. Why wasn't he at work? People did what he asked at work.

Strange how he could think of work in this situation and not get the familiar icy feeling in his stomach. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was the arousal warming it away. Never mind.

He started the engine and pulled away from the kerb. "So, come on then, Mr fucking Hyena, where am I driving to?"

Ten minutes later, Ray leaned forwards in his seat to point. "One more left and if you just park over _there _..." He wriggled his free hand between the seatbelt and his neck.

"Bit tight for leaning forwards?" Kai wasn't at all gloating. Not at all.

He caught the rapid movement out of the corner of his eye too late, and swore at the top of his voice as Ray swung at the side of Kai's arm with the edge of his hand, very effectively deadening it. The car swerved violently to the left.

Kai tried to straighten the wheel. He overcorrected and swung out onto the other side of the road. A car honked its horn angrily as it braked and swerved out of its own course. Working on adrenalin, he pulled the car straight again before swinging the car into a messy park at the side of the road and yanking on the handbrake.

"You fuckwit!" He poked his numb arm gingerly. "You were the one who was so worried about crashing! We could have crashed then! Who do you think you are, fucking Jackie Chan?"

"No, I don't think I'm fucking Jackie Chan, I'd rather do Jet Li," Ray said with a completely straight face. Momentarily lost for words, Kai stared at him furiously. Anger bloomed into its familiar spot in his chest and he didn't do anything to stop it because it was better than admitting his racing heart and chilly sweat of fear. That was the closet he had ever come to a crash.

Under Kai's intense look, Ray's poker face crumpled into another overwhelming fit of laughter. Kai expected the reaction to anger him further, but in fact, looking at Ray's red, contorted face and the tears of laughter beginning to glisten at the corners of his creased up eyes actually made the white heat of rage inside him flicker and die down. Then his lips began to curl, and soon he was chuckling and then laughing out loud. It was the sort of racking laughter that had him in the same state as Ray; doubled over with his red face pressed against the steering wheel and gasping for air.

"You're ridiculous," he mumbled when he had recovered his equilibrium.

"Oh, because you're completely and utterly sensible, you mad sourpuss!" Ray retorted, wiping his eyes with the backs of his hands. Rather than bother telling Ray to shut up again, Kai took the much more effective method of leaning over the gearstick and kissing him.

Ray melted into the kiss and strained forwards against the seatbelt. He reached to undo it, but Kai had thought fast and his hand was already covering the button.

"Say 'Seatbelts are a stupid idea'."

Ray's eyes flashed defiance. "No." With what looked like a lot of effort, he sat back and pushed Kai's hand gently aside. "You were the one complaining cars weren't comfortable enough." He unclipped the seatbelt and put his hand on the door handle.

"I didn't say that!"

"No; you didn't need to." Ray grinned and got out, swinging the door back and forth idly as he waited.

All Kai could do was scowl, both at Ray's insubordination and at the way he was treating Kai's car. And then all he could do was get out and follow, and that annoyed him too. He wasn't a follower. He made sure to walk slightly ahead of Ray, even though he didn't know where the hell he was going.

"Good," Ray muttered as if to himself as he fumbled with his house keys, "she's not in." The door swung abruptly open.

"Yes, I am."

Kai looked down at the woman standing in the doorway with her arms folded. Pink hair, pink headband with pink roses on it, tight pink T-shirt with a pink wildcat of some description along the ample bust and even pink _jeans_. He finally proved to himself that he'd had too much to drink by saying precisely what he was thinking; "Too much pink."

Two identical sets of eyes stared at him with disbelief. Ray started to laugh again but was cut off abruptly.

"You _drove_ here?" Her gaze had shifted to the car keys Kai was swinging absentmindedly from his ring finger. "_You_ drove here?" She stared at them both with a scalpel-sharp look.

Kai tried to see them through her eyes: Ray had an arm around Kai and was leaning against him, his hand pressing high up between Kai's shoulder blades to keep himself looking balanced. His golden eyes were hazy and even the appearance of this strange pink spitfire hadn't knocked the satisfied grin from his face, nor the blood from the erection bumping gently against Kai's hip. Kai knew he was _still _better off than Ray in both the erection and intoxication departments, but he could tell that his chest and neck were flushed and knew from experience that something in his eyes would look slightly off.

"The pair of you in this state and you _drove_?" The ferocity of her continued accusation set him on the defensive in a second;

"You know, changing the stress doesn't change the meaning of that sentence." He held her glare steadily. The height difference was helpful in that respect, though it didn't seem to be intimidating her at all. "We're still alive, aren't we?" That comment seemed to infuriate her; her eyes widened further and he swore that her hair bristled.

"Mariah," Ray said in a voice that Kai could only describe as wheedling, "could we have this conversation later? Please?" Kai watched in fascination as the pair of them locked gazes, and wished he had telepathy. Mariah looked utterly furious.

Mariah sighed and stepped away from the doorway a little. Her face was still dark and angry. "We'll talk about this tomorrow, Ray." With what looked like an effort, she forced a surprisingly soft smile onto her face. "Just don't be too noisy." Ray let out a derisive howl that made Kai jump.

"Hypocrite!" Ray proclaimed and walked straight past. Kai noticed briefly how her face now matched the rest of her before switching his attention to Ray, who was dragging him onwards by the wrist.

And then, _finally_ they were in Ray's room, and the second the door closed behind them Ray pressed every inch of himself against Kai. Their lips met again; already Kai felt like he knew them. That didn't mean that their teeth didn't clash every now and again but that was because of the sudden urgency of their movements. They had tested each other's boundaries enough in previous kisses. They had explored - not enough, no, but enough to strip away the last vestige of Kai's nerves and leave only need. So he caught Ray's probing tongue and twirled it and sucked it with his own in a hopefully obvious parallel until Ray let out a gargled moan. The nape of Ray's neck felt like velvet in his two-handed grip, a line of soft hair brushing at his palms as they switched head positions again.

He shivered so violently that he nearly broke the kiss at the sudden feel of Ray's hands pushing inside his trousers and boxers, those long, clever fingers curved over the bare, tingling cheeks and squeezing almost hard enough to hurt. Then Ray pulled towards himself and did that shimmying thing with his hips from earlier so that their erections rubbed together. The sensation was dulled by two pairs of trousers and boxers, but Kai was almost more excited by the sheer reality of it all.

Just like earlier, he found himself marvelling at the sensation overload: the taste of Ray in his mouth (mushroom, but second-hand it didn't seem so bad); the odd times he opened his eyes and saw Ray's handsome face in such an intimate close-up; the moans and sighs they were both making, and the swish of their clothes rubbing together, and the sounds as their mouths constantly refound each other. It hit him yet again that _this was real_.

He belatedly realised that Ray was struggling with his fly, and reached down to lend a hand and return the favour. Soon their boxers were open too, and the grinding recommenced. The feeling of skin on skin, this particular bit of skin, hot and firm yet so soft, made the steady trickle of arousal into Kai's groin into a lake.

It clearly affected Ray similarly; he gasped and his head slid down to rest loosely on Kai's shoulder. His hips sped up in time with his ragged breathing, thrusting so hard and fast that Kai thought Ray's legs might give way at any second. It seemed the perfect opportunity for Kai to copy Ray's move from earlier, and in doing so cop a good feel while help keep him standing. He reached down with his suddenly free hands and (with a moment's awed hesitation that he would never admit to, ever) took hold of Ray's firm bottom. He had chosen to hold it differently from the way Ray held his, though. Ray's palms were at the top of Kai's rear and his fingertips at the bottom, while Kai was cupping as close to horizontally as their identical heights allowed, fingertips nearly meeting in the middle of the crease.

The violent tremors he could feel running through Ray's flexing thighs and the hot pants of air on his collarbone told him they were nearly equal in the orgasm department. Good. He had chosen this grip for one simple reason: so that he could do _this_. He squeezed tightly, pulling the cheeks apart and ever so gently touched what lay between with the tip of his middle finger.

Ray moaned something that sounded an awful lot like "You _bastard_," and pressed his teeth into Kai's shoulder; not biting, just pressing as if to alleviate the impossible pressure build-up. Then orgasm hit, and Kai was the only reason Ray stayed standing. The gargled noise he made and the hot mess that spattered both their bodies made Kai's entire body break out in goose pimples.

It took several seconds for Ray to regain his feet, much to Kai's annoyance. Ok, so annoyance was very, very far down on the list of emotions wheeling through his head right now, but still. Ever tried holding a deadweight the same size as you? Tricky business. So he was pleased for a multitude of reasons when Ray eventually stepped away and gave Kai a hazy-eyed grin. Even more pleased when Ray said in a low voice,

"We're wearing too many clothes."

Kai couldn't help but agree. Facing each other - why couldn't Kai stop smiling? - they stripped off their shirts and detangled their trousers and boxers from around their knees and ankles, and threw the whole stained lot of them carelessly aside.

Kai looked at Ray and forgot to breathe. He was magnificent. Hard ridges of muscle and dark hair and an interesting couple of curved scars all glistened with sweat and begged to be touched. That golden tan was spread completely evenly. (A delicious picture of the naked sunbathing that was no doubt required popped into Kai's head.) Without a shadow of a doubt, he was the most physically perfect man that Kai had ever seen in this much ... detail.

Ray's answering stare sent cold trails of fear across his body; he knew he couldn't match up to Ray's physique. Once upon a time, maybe, but not now. Sedentary job and stress and boredom leading to shit food and no life; he knew that his skin was pasty white and his stomach flat but featureless, and that if this turned into the sort of marathon that his libido was hoping for, his stamina surely wouldn't match Ray's.

(He did beat Ray in one thing, though. That was definitely something to be proud of.)

"C'mon then, vampire," Ray mumbled. He licked his lips (Kai unconsciously copied him) then took Kai's hand and pulled.

They tumbled onto Ray's double bed with its green and gold cover that made Ray's eyes positively glow, and lay for a quiet, wits-gathering second in a warm pile of naked limbs and heaving chests. Then their hands wandered and the real competition began. They began at one all - each had caused the other's orgasm.

Kai did not intend to lose.

It was a pleasant awakening at first. Pleasant was an understatement, in fact. Kai felt so light that he could float, and so contented that all he could do was smile. He was warm and cosy under the covers and he was finally, finally sated. If he had ever felt happier or more relaxed in his life, he couldn't remember the occasion right now. Even the dull ache from some particularly intense love-bites that he was lying on only added to the general feeling of self-satisfaction. He curled on his side like a comma, intending to drift back into a doze.

Then he noticed Ray was missing.

_Then _the shouting began from just outside the door.

"What were you _thinking_, Ray?" Oh, it was the pink thing. What was she so worked up about? Ray wasn't replying - if he was there and the small crazy pink thing wasn't just talking to herself, that was. "You really have no idea of safety, do you? You've met this guy, what, twice? And then suddenly you're going out to dinner with him without letting anybody know - "

"Enrique - "

"- and you get in his car without even _thinking_ -"

"I'm not a child!"

"Oh, really? You're not acting like a fucking adult! No way should he have been driving! No _way_! I know you're more responsible than that normally - you want me to pretend you're a responsible adult when you got yourself so pissed and randy that you didn't care?"

"I told him to put his seatbelt on," Ray protested in a defeated voice. Kai was very, very surprised at how well Ray was taking this shrieking onslaught. He was starting to grind his teeth just listening to it - what right did she have to act like an overbearing mother?

"Oh!" It was almost a scream. "Oh, you told him to put his seatbelt on? He would have driven _without_ it?"

Yes, Kai said to himself, aggrieved, and he had done, too. Hadn't put a seatbelt on in all the ten years he'd been driving, and only had a few cases of whiplash to show for it. He was a good driver! Bet she couldn't parallel park if her life depended on it!

"Just because he doesn't care about his life doesn't mean you need to get killed with him, no matter how gorgeous he is!" She hiccupped and fell silent. Kai pulled a surprised face; was she _crying_? He sat up and tried to see what was going on through the wide-open door. If he craned his neck, he could just about see their shadows; one big, one small.

"I'm sorry, Kit," Ray said. Their shadows merged in what looked like a hug. She sniffed messily and snapped,

"Nicknames get you nowhere."

"No, really. You're completely right."

"It won't happen again?"

"I promise not. Promise, promise."

"Ok, repeat after me: I will not let my dick overrule my common sense."

"Kitty!"

"What?" Her tone was teasing now, with only a shaky vowel proof of her previous tears. "That's exactly what happened and you know it is, Tig."

Ray sighed. "Ok. Fine."

"Well? I will not ..."

"I will not let my dick overrule my common sense," Ray recited in a monotone. Kai held his mouth shut with his hand and thought of his grandfather to stop himself from laughing like a lunatic.

"Can I have that written in blood?"

"Oh, shut up, Mariah."

She clicked her tongue and took on an affronted tone; "Well, then." Their shadows separated again. "Go away then, Tig. You absolutely stink of man-sex."

Ray chuckled. It had an undertone that sent heat chasing briefly up Kai's spine. "Good." Seconds later, he came through the door, met Kai's eyes and turned bright red.

Kai started laughing under his breath. "It's all right, I don't even know where to start," he reassured Ray.

Ray seemed remarkably unreassured. He hovered by the door, red-faced and twitchy. Kai mentally pulled an annoyed face as he moved positions to a more ... strategic one. He was far more interested in the fact that Ray was only in boxers, love bites out and proud.

"Ok, what was with the nicknames?"

Ray's face went even redder. "Old thing from when people were calling me a cat like I told you before. Mariah decided we'd be called the "right" kind of cat. So she's Wildcat, or Kitty if I'm buttering her up, and I'm Tiger."

"Or Tig," Kai continued, the hilarious truth dawning on him, "short for Tigger." He managed to avoid a laughing fit, but purely because he saw Ray was finally looking in the right direction. He waited patiently, then mentally cheered as that sexy suave grin spread across Ray's face.

"Is that just a normal morning awakening, or are you pleased to see me?"

An enjoyable hour later, Kai was standing in the doorway and putting on his shoes, really slowly. Ray was doing that nervous hovering thing again opposite him, and both of them were trying to blank out Mariah's steadily rising telephone voice from her bedroom. At least, Kai hoped it was her bedroom; the glimpse he had seen walking past to the bathroom had nearly blinded him.

The awkward silence was loud. Kai took momentary stock of his clothes and winced: he had to wear his trousers back to front with the suit jacket around the waist still, although Ray had offered to lend him a pair, and his shirt looked like ... well, like it had been screwed up in a little ball and tossed somewhere carelesly. Funny, that.

"I hate awkward silences," he complained. Anything to break it, right?

Ray snorted with amusement and agreed. "Don't know why it's awkward, anyway. It was fun."

"Yeah, exactly."

"Yeah." More silence. "We've got each other's numbers," Ray pointed out. Kai nodded and patted his pocket where his phone was.

"Definitely."

"Ray!" Mariah called. She sounded hassled. "Stupid monkey's trying again, even though I told him not to!"

"So not the ti-ime!" Ray shouted back, whining like a teenager. Kai laughed.

"You act like she's your mother, you know." He stood on one foot to tighten the laces. He'd already done that twice, so he didn't quite know why he kept doing it.

"Oh, shut up."

"And my life was immeasurably better before I knew of the existence of pink jeans." He swore as Ray pushed him gently with his foot, causing him to overbalance and nearly fall. They were both laughing as he straightened up. Kai looked at Ray's happy face and, on impulse, darted forward to place a light kiss on his lips. "Thanks," he said simply. Ray's expression shifted from happy to surprised to pleased and happy again.

"Anytime." There was a slight questioning intonation in the word, and again Kai's mouth answered before his brain,

"Definitely another time." His mouth was still stuck in this stupid smile, damn it.

Mariah bustled up (there was no other word for it) and glared at them both. "Boys, either stop flirting and seperate, or come back in and lock Ray's door again, but don't just stand there dithering with the door wide open!"

Ray's face was bright red and Kai could feel matching colour creeping up his neck. He hadn't properly realised that was what they were doing.

"Suppose I'd better be going, then. My cat'll hate me for missing two meals." Automatically, he held out his hand. Ray laughed and grabbed it, pulling him into a quick hug.

"Bye, then."

"Bye."

He managed to make it to the car before looking back, opening the door wider than usual as a frankly pathetic cover.

Ray was still standing there.

This smile was starting to hurt his face.

* * *

So, as usual, all opinions welcome. I was very sad when last chapter didn't get the average number of reviews - I hope it wasn't substandard to the rest? I thought it might be the wait, hence why I got my head down for this one.

MARIAH! I love her. Soon Kai'll warm to her too.

PLOT! IT REAPPEARED! For about two seconds between the citrus. Immense brownies if you figured it out.

Do let me know if you found this chapter sexy. It was the aim, but I'm always a bit doubtful of myself.

Just to check - people are pro the idea of an LJ post full of Kai/Ray porn? Y/Y? ;)

Thanks for reading,

xIlbx


	8. Chapter 8

**New A/N**

**READER ALERT: This chapter has an extra 1,500-odd words added on. Because I thought they fitted better here than in the next chapter. And I like this length better. XD**

Old A/N

All I can do is apologise for the delay. And for this chapter, which is insanely short, but vaguely necessary filler.

Thank you very, very much to Tootchy, PixxyDust, littlelil1991, LovelySinner7, Panda Pjays and essenceofzedak for your reviews. I really appreciate them.

* * *

As Kai had expected, the second he opened his door he was confronted by a sulking cat. Stupid creature was sat smack-bang in the middle of the floor giving him an icy look of utter contempt.

"If you were a dog, you'd be licking my face and barking with joy right now," he informed the cat. As if in reply, it twisted and started licking its arse.

Not even this rudeness put a dent in Kai's good mood. "Glaring and ignoring authority in favour of questionable activities. You're my cat, all right." He went to the cupboard and hunted for the cat food. How did it always migrate to the back?

The cat let out a demanding meow and headbutted his calf.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's coming." He bent down to stroke the cat's head. It backed off and regarded him with a hostile look. Kai rolled his eyes, found the tin … then realised he had no idea where the tin-opener was. The last time he'd fed the cat had been before his date when he'd been dithering around the flat like a fucking sissy, so God only knew where he'd put the stupid thing in his distracted state.

He fished around in the cutlery drawer, and realised that he was thinking about Ray at about the same time he noticed he was whistling. As if it had got bored of hiding, the tin-opener suddenly appeared under the sharp meat knife.

Still whistling, he crouched down again to scrape the stinking slop into the cat's bowl. The cat plunged its face straight in and started scoffing. As Kai watched, the cat raised its head briefly and gave him a look that seemed to say, 'What the hell happened to you?'

"Sex happened to me, you grumpy bastard," Kai informed it. It blinked and returned to its food. Kai thought about what he'd just said, then said it again. It sounded unreal still. Even with teethmarks all over him and strained muscles that he'd forgotten got used to do … stuff … and, though he keot tryuing to forget about that, embarrassingly stained trousers.

_He'd had sex_. Really, really great sex, with a gorgeous guy who was somehow funny as well, and why the fuck had he waited this long, anyway?

The cat yowled. It was sat upright next to its mostly empty food bowl, looking a lot like a statue of itself apart from the big disapproving eyes.

"What?" Kai stared at it, nonplussed. "You can't want more food, you haven't finished what you've got!"

The cat blinked at him and transferred its creepily intense stare to a patch on the floor near Kai's foot. Even though he knew the cat was crazy, Kai still checked the floor, just for a split second.

"Crazy fucking animal."

The cat started purring, and flopped down onto the kitchen tile like it was a luxury cat bed or something.

"What the fuck are you on?" Kai shook his head in disbelief.

Soon he was slumped in his usual position on the sofa, watching meaningless television and letting his mind wander. Except usually his mind wandered to work, and how much Tyson was annoying him, while today it was wandering to … well. The sex. And the second sex. And the bits before the sex, and after the sex. Post-coital action, now there was a new experience. Previously he would just had filed 'Roll over and go to sleep/get up and go back to the laptop or TV' under that category and shrugged.

Shit. Now he could really do with a wank, but the cat had just jumped up on the arm of the sofa and was eyeing his newly lumpy trousers with disgust.

"At least you didn't jump on it again," he muttered, stretching out a hand. The cat obligingly sniffed and nuzzled it, then swivelled to stare at the television with every sign of absorption.

Kai's ridiculously erotic daydreams were shattered by his mobile ringing. He'd left it on the counter top, so the vibration sounded like a dentist drill. The cat leapt off the sofa with a shriek and stared at the slowly moving phone with narrow hunter's eyes that were utterly belied by the terrified shape of its fur.

"I completely agree," Kai mumbled. He heaved himself out of his chair and across the floor just in time to catch the phone as it fell off the counter. In the time that it took him to press the button and raise the phone to his ear, his blood had run hot with the idea that it might be Ray, and freezing cold with the idea that it might be his grandfather. "Yeah?"

"You could have warned me before I gave you a holiday that you never ever delegate anything to anyone."

Better than Grandfather, much worse than Ray.

"Tala, you didn't give me a holiday, you forced me to leave!"

"Stop being pedantic."

"I'm not being pedantic, I'm – "

"Anyway, _like I was saying_, why the hell did you not tell me that no-one else in your office has any clue about what you do or how you do it?"

Kai grinned at the frustrated tone in Tala's voice, and sauntered back to the sofa. "Finding your actual job a bit tricky now, are you?"

"Wha-"

"Come on, you know I do at least half your drudgery so you can schmooze with the potential clients."

"That's not the point. The point is that you should have warned me that without you, your little foursome subordinates would become about as useful as a chocolate kettle!"

Kai rolled his eyes and mouthed "Drama queen," at the cat. It blinked at him and curled up on the floor as if to listen from a safe distance. "You didn't give me a chance to tell you anything," he protested. "You barely even let me drive myself home, and then you stopped any of them speaking to me for three days!"

"It was necessary at the time." There was a short stubborn silence. "How are you, anyway? It's been, what, four days?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Relaxed and shit."

Tala snorted with laughter. "You wouldn't know relaxed if it kicked you in the balls."

"Nothing's going to kick me in the balls without me knowing about it. Unlike you."

Another snort of laughter. "Ok, maybe you are relaxed. You're insulting me jokingly instead of meaning it."

"Of course I'm relaxed. Watching some tedious daytime show right now, all sprawled out on the sofa."

"You're kidding me. Daytime tv? What is it, Help, my daughter's a big fat gypsy loser who wants to be a millionaire, get me out of here?"

Kai burst out laughing. The cat glared and stalked off to slide under Kai's bed.

"Because you don't watch any of those shows ever, do you?"

Tala scoffed. Sighed. "You _are_ better, aren't you? I haven't heard you honestly laugh at a joke for ages."

"Yeah, well, that's because your jokes are fucking shit."

Eventually, Kai let the banter drop and they spent the next three-quarters of an hour discussing everything that needed to be done, or needed to be done again properly. In doing so, Kai discovered that Tala had been exaggerating. His team had held their own reasonably well given that he honestly didn't ever delegate and the filing system only existed in his head.

"So, I'm coming back next week, then." It was a statement, not a question, so he ground his teeth when Tala hummed thoughtfully. "Ivanov!" he snapped.

"You passed out mid-sentence, Kai."

"I didn't pass out," Kai muttered.

"Stop evading the point! How old _are_ you?" Tala's voice was sharp and disdainful. Kai hated his automatic desire to shout back or sulk; teenage reactions that only seemed to mutely prove Tala's point. He watched the cat's tail flick back and forth.

"I didn't pass out," he repeated, just for something to say.

"No, you didn't pass out," Tala was definitely angry now, "but one second you were shouting in my face and the next you were too faint to hold your own fucking head up off the floor, so is there _really_ a difference?"

"It doesn't _matter_." Kai stared at the cat's swishing tail. Something that had been niggling at the back of his mind suddenly sprang into sharp focus. He was so used to his grandfather knowing everything that happened in his life that he had completely forgotten that someone had needed to tell him. He wasn't telepathic. Luckily. "It definitely didn't need reporting up the way."

Tala made a bemused noise. Kai stayed silent. Tala was insanely intelligent. He'd figure it out. He liked that it didn't click immediately. Tala, Max and Tyson were the only people who didn't constantly remember that he was the Big Boss's grandson.

"Oh, so what was I supposed to do? _Lie_ about sending a junior manager home for an entire week? I'm sorry if your granddaddy told you off, but the world does not revolve around you and your issues!"

"I - "

"Kai, if you dare try to say that you don't have issues, I'll hang up."

So Kai got there first. Call ended. Conversation over. Fuck him. He was coming back into work. Not negotiable.

He ranted at the cat for five or six minutes, then found himself tapping out a message to Ray;

"_Boss thinks i hav issues. such an arrogant twat._" After rereading it once or twice, he realised what was missing. "_how r u? dead of pink yet_?" Then he put the phone down and wandered aimlessly around the flat as he waited for a reply. The usual time-killing activity occured to him, but arguing with Tala drained all libido straight out of him.

Ha. Straight.

Ten twitchy minutes later, his phone beeped. He grabbed it.

Tala? He frowned and read the text.

"_Have scheduled you in for a schmooze with Julia_"

He took a second to scoff at Tala's relatively accurate grammar. Then the context hit him and he went on a swearing streak.

He had to go and be sociable. Worse, he had to go and be sociable with their best supplier so it actually counted. Worse, that meant he had to pretend to find her as funny and sexy as she thought she was.

He sent back, "_punishment_?" Almost imediately Tala replied. That probably meant he'd had the message already written, sneaky bastard.

"_Thought you wanted to come back to work?_"

_Bastard_.

* * *

"Welcome back, Kai!" Alan.

"Hope you're feeling better!" Tyson.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want another day or two off? 'Cause, y'know, that's completely fine by me …" Andrew.

"Did you miss us?" Max.

Kai walked straight past the four of them. He put his hand on his office door handle and waited in silence until the atmosphere had sharpened and tensed.

"You useless bastards _should_ be glad I'm back. Tala had to ring me mid-week to try and fix the fuck-ups you made from absurdly simple tasks. Clearly nobody here can actually do what they're paid to do."

The silence nearly burst at the seams with defiance and sulking in equal measures, but sensibly no-one spoke up. Grinning inside, Kai opened the door and went inside, making sure to give them all a dark, contemptuous look as he turned. The door swung shut behind him, wedging neatly on the metal pencil sharpener he used as a doorstop and so stopping a finger's width from full closure.

This meant he could still hear and be heard in the main room, but it was private enough still that he didn't worry about anyone seeing the grin as it crept out of his mind and over his face. It was fun, cowing grown men like that. They'd had a week off from him. And hell, even before that he'd been getting a bit soft. Allowing insubordination. Well, they'd soon learn he was back.

He sat at his desk and skimmed through the pile of papers neatly stacked there. One near the middle made him scowl and lean forwards to shout out the door;

"The next person who speaks, writes, types or in any way mentions the name of that whiny green shite known as 'Kevin' will be out doing the rounds in place of their sales rep for a week!"

More resentful silence. Then, of course;

"But, Kai, he's really persistent!"

"I'll show you persistent if you don't stop whining! And the next person to call me 'Kai' is also out on the roads! Now get the fuck back to work, you useless piles of shit!"

For the rest of the day, the mood in the main room reminded Kai exactly of his many teenage after-school detentions; bubbling resentment barely restrained by sullen silence. It bothered him, but only to the extent that yes, he had clearly been too soft on them lately. That hadn't been a particularly damning lecture by any means. For fuck's sake, that was practically just him saying hi. Spineless wimps, the lot of them.

He managed three phone-calls and six emails to Tala without losing his temper once. He would have thought nothing of this, if not for the fact that Tala's efforts not to comment on said cool head were more obvious than simply saying it and getting it over and done with. That pissed him off. (Which, ok, he was self-aware enough to recognise was … ironic or some such shit.) The memory of Tala telling him he had a personality disorder came back to him with crunching force and his psyche shrunk away from it in a bewildered mix of rage, shame and denial. He did _not_. Anger issues, yes, ok, he should probably accept that. But he didn't need to be patronised and tiptoed around like some invalid or a stick of dynamite with a millimetre fuse!

He just needed everything to go back to normal. Forget the blackouts had ever happened. Forget –

_Beep_. He glared at his phone then checked the screen.

Ah. Ray. He didn't want to forget Ray. He opened the text.

_Hi how r u? at work? sorry if so! mariah's jst found out bout her hair bobble, I am in doghouse_

It took a second for Kai to remember where a hair bobble had been in the scheme of things that night. Once he'd remembered, it took him a couple of seconds more to _stop_ remembering. He closed the text to reply to it later, and couldn't help but double-take at his inbox.

Inbox (1/263)

[Ray] _Hi how r u? at work?[ …]_

[Ray] _xxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

[Ray] _night night sleep well_

[Ray] _lol u r impossible […]_

[Ray] _ok then but what [ …]_

[Ray] _no i think i win bcz [ …]_

He carried on scrolling until he finally found a text from someone who wasn't Ray. It was from his mobile service provider, but that counted, right? It was text number 159.

They had texted back and forth all weekend, he knew that, but it hadn't quite sunk in until he'd properly looked at the evidence. Like the timestamps. It had started at ten past eleven on Thursday with his rant about Tala, and finished with Ray sending that excessive line of kisses at two-thirty this Monday morning.

What was that, forty texts a day? When was the last time he'd sent forty texts in a _week_?

He gritted his teeth and put the phone down. Halfway through checking a spreadsheet Tala had just emailed through, he picked it up again to reply to Ray's text.

_Yes at work. cleaning up shit, fml. Why she upset? Stained? Always washes out!_

Ray's reply was made of capital letters. So Kai utterly ignored the meaning and instead replied,

_Oh, so you've found capital letters again! And here was me thinking you'd only used them that once to check if I was still up for it!_

Ray's reply made him snort with laughter and flush with arousal simultaneously. He was just about to send a reply along the lines of 'My place or yours?' when he remembered that bloody dinner Tala had set up for him with Julia Fernandez.

_Got to be nice to a girl tonight. _

Ray took a while to reply.

_LOL nice knowing you!_

* * *

To Kai's surprise, he found the dinner tolerable until now. Julia's ability to produce wittily sarcastic comments about everyone from her brother to her boss to her hairdresser was admirable. Second only to Kai's own ability, of course. She was a typical businesswoman; workaholic, perfectionist, highly-strung, brash, and very, very clever with a razor-sharp tongue which was generally turned against any men in her vicinity.

He left out 'vain and selfish with a disproportionate sense of self-importance and a brother complex the size of the moon,' because he was feeling generous.

Most importantly, as long as he made noises and eye contact every now and again, she happily held forth until food, wine or lack of oxygen temporarily derailed her. This left Kai free to fiddle with his food or drink and think about other things.

This latest tale had dragged his ghoulishly fascinated awareness back like a commuter passing a road accident. It involved her detailing how she frightened away cold-callers.

By pretending to have phone sex with them.

"... and then I hung up and Raul is just sat there staring at me, all 'Sis, _why_?' Because it's hilarious, of course!" She laughed. Brayed, more accurately.

Ok, a small part of Kai's brain noted, she's had more to drink than I thought. Must have had. Please don't let this be the _start_ of the drunken tales.

The larger part of his brain was ordering him to stare fixedly at his plate while emergency thoughts flailed frantically around his head with sponges, mops and bleach.

" ... you think?"

Kai grunted in reply, hoping that would pass muster. No such luck;

"Kai?"

Reluctantly he raised his head.

She was leaning slightly forward and staring at him expectantly. Her arms were folded. These two postural choices led to exaggeration of her already ample cleavage to the point where her bra (ew, he could _see_ it) looked under strain.

The frantic cleaning inside his head redoubled.

He got a grip on himself, and carried on moving his head up until he met her eyes. Hers gleamed and the corners of her mouth twitched, and he realised with a magnificent internal swearing monologe that she had taken his momentary hesitation at chest level for _the exact opposite of its actual motivations_.

Oh fucking fuck, she was flirting with him, and thought he was flirting back.

Damn Tala. Damn him to hell. He sliced a piece of spaghetti into tiny pieces and imagined it was Tala's skinny white arm.

He didn't even know why she felt it worth her while to flirt with him. If she were buying from him, then yes, that would make unfortunate, reputation-damaging/making-sense, but he was looking to buy from her. So by that logic he should be the one flirting.

As a matter of fact, _yes he should be_. It might lower prices. That was how he was paid to think, wasn't it?

It wasn't like hetrosexual flirting was a new job tactic; he'd done it several times before. He wasn't good at it, though. (Hm, wonder why?) Tala and Max were the best, though they had completely opposite approaches. Max was all smiles and compliments and jokes and general fluffy bunnies, while Tala practised the 'strong and silent' approach.

If forced to try, Kai usually just switched his nasty sarcasm for the lighter brand. Nothing else. No smiles or laughter, no compliments, no eye contact, no _anything_ contact please, thank you. And yet some girls went loopy around him. Personally, he thought it said a lot for their mental insecurities. But then, he wasn't paid to insult girls. Males, yes. Girls who worked for him (which made them honorary males, right?), yes

"Another drink?" Her arch suggestion yanked him from the internal musings. (They distracted him from The Cleavage.) He met her green eyes and did _not_ shudder at the interest glittering there.

"Nah." He leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. Gave her a few quiet minutes to recognise that both their plates were empty and their conversation at an end.

"Ok, then." She got to her feet. He copied her. "It was very nice meeting you, Kai."

He nodded stiffly and held out his hand. Her eyes flickered from his hand to his face for a second, then she shook his hand. Her firm grip took him completely by surprise and he had to make a split-second adjustment back to his usual handshake as opposed to the half-or-less he usually gave women.

There was none of the fluttering he associated with females who inexplicably found him appealing. Her gaze (she was tall, he wasn't; they were nearly eye-to-eye) was as steady as her handshake, and he might even be imagining that rueful curve of her lips.

Well. He approved of people who retreated gracefully.

"Nice meeting you too, Julia."

* * *

Old A/N

Again, I'm so sorry about the nearly year-long wait for -this-. Let me assure you all that things will start happening properly from now on in.

I've also decided to start replying to every review I recieve, just to show everyone how much their input is worth to me.

It amuses me how well K&T are getting on in this. I don't usually write anything with them even interacting much.

**New A/N**

**I don't write Julia enough. I rather like her. If Julia came across a bit fanservicey or if Mariah ever does, someone yell at me because it can be hard for a Kinsey 5.9 bi to write about cute anime girls from a grumpy gay git's PoV. XD**

**Next chapter will hopefully be up by Friday/Saturday. If not then, then next Saturday when I'm back from holiday.**

**Hope people liked the new scenes. Please let me know!**

**xIlbx**


End file.
